Signs were missed in Fort Hood massacre

It seems clear that federal authorities missed key signs that Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan was deeply troubled.

It is easy to second-guess these signs as clearly pointing to the deadly rampage last week. But a failure of prognostication is not the issue. It’s likely that no one could have predicted what happened based on the clues Hasan was leaving.

Still, the Army clearly had a soldier/psychiatrist who was conflicted about the morality of his role in it and in his country’s wars. More, it had someone who corresponded with another who advocated war on the Army and the country.

All of this should have triggered an early intervention — even an interview — but apparently, this did not happen. It should have, regardless of whether the soldier was Muslim, Christian or atheist.

From personal utterances to a PowerPoint presentation to that e-mail correspondence with an anti-American imam, there were signs aplenty of incompatibility between Hasan and military service and the current wars, one of which he was about to deploy to.

Alarms should have gone off. But not because Hasan is Muslim; they should have been sounding because of Hasan’s questionable actions over a long period of months.

Reprinted from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel