Lt. Col. Allen West (Ret) on Fort Hood Massacre
This past Thursday (November 5, 2009) 13 American Soldiers were killed and another 30 wounded at a horrific mass shooting at US Army installation, Ft Hood Texas. As I watched in horror and then anger I recalled my two years of final service in the Army as a Battalion Commander at Ft Hood, 2002-2004.
My wife and two daughters were stunned at the incident having lived on the post in family housing.
A military installation, whether it is Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, or Coast Guard, is supposed to be a safe sanctuary for our Warriors and their families. It is intended to provide a home whereby our “Band of Brothers and Sisters” can find solace and bond beyond just the foxhole but as family units.
A military installation is supposed to be a place where our Warriors train for war, to serve and protect our Nation.
On Thursday, 5 November 2009 Ft. Hood became a part of the battlefield in the war against Islamic totalitarianism and state sponsored terrorism.
There may be those who feel threatened by my words and would even recommend they not be uttered. To those individuals I say, step aside because now is not the time for cowardice. Our Country has become so paralyzed by political correctness that we have allowed a vile and determined enemy to breach what should be the safest place in America, an Army post.
We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable. The fact that there are some who have now created an entire new classification called; “pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” is unconscionable.
This is not a “man caused disaster”. It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack.
We have seen this before in 2003 when a SGT Hasan of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) threw hand grenades and
Lt. Col. Allen West, U.S. Army (Ret.)
opened fire into his Commanding Officer’s tent in Kuwait. We have seen the foiled attempt of Albanian Muslims who sought to attack Ft Dix, NJ. Recently we saw a young convert to Islam named Carlos Bledsoe travel to Yemen, receive terrorist training, and return to gun down two US Soldiers at a Little Rock, Arkansas Army recruiting station. We thwarted another Islamic terrorist plot in North Carolina which had US Marine Corps Base, Quantico as a target.
What have we done with all these prevalent trends? Nothing.
What we see are recalcitrant leaders who are refusing to confront the issue, Islamic terrorist infiltration into America, and possibly further into our Armed Services. Instead we have a multiculturalism and diversity syndrome on steroids.
Major Hasan should have never been transferred to Ft Hood, matter of fact he should have been Chaptered from the Army. His previous statements, poor evaluation reports, and the fact that the FBI had him under investigation for jihadist website posting should have been proof positive.
However, what we have is a typical liberal approach to find a victim, not the 13 and 30 Soldiers and Civilian, but rather the poor shooter. A shooter who we are told was a great American, who loved the Army and serving his Nation and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) stating that his actions had nothing to do with religious belief.
We know that Major Hasan deliberately planned this episode; he did give away his possessions. He stood atop a table in the confined space of the Soldier Readiness Center shouting “Allahu Akhbar”, same chant as the 9-11 terrorists and those we fight against overseas in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of operation.
No one in leadership seems willing to sound the alarm for the American people; they are therefore complicit in any future attacks. Our Congress should suspend the insidious action to vote on a preposterous and unconstitutional healthcare bill and resolve the issue of “protecting the American people”.
The recent incidents in Dearborn Michigan, Boston Massachusetts, Dallas Texas, and Chicago Illinois should bear witness to the fact that we have an Islamic terrorism issue in America. And don’t have CAIR call me and try to issue a vanilla press statement; they are an illegitimate terrorist associated organization which should be disbanded.
We have Saudi Arabia funding close to 80% of the mosques in the United States, one right here in South Florida, Pompano Beach. Are we building churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia? Are “Kaffirs” and “Infidels” allowed travel to Mecca?
So much for peaceful coexistence.
Saudi Arabia is sponsoring radical Imams who enter into our prisons and convert young men into a virulent Wahabbist ideology….one resulting in four individuals wanting to destroy synagogues in New York with plastic explosives. Thank God the explosives were dummy. They are sponsoring textbooks which present Islamic centric revisionist history in our schools.
We must recognize that there is an urgent need to separate the theo-political radical Islamic ideology out of our American society. We must begin to demand surveillance of suspected Imams and mosques that are spreading hate and preaching the overthrow of our Constitutional Republic……that speech is not protected under First Amendment, it is sedition and if done by an American is treason.
There should not be some 30 Islamic terrorist training camps in America that has nothing to do with First Amendment, Freedom of Religion. The Saudis are not our friends and any American political figure who believes such is delusional.
When tolerance becomes a one way street it certainly leads to cultural suicide. We are on that street. Liberals cannot be trusted to defend our Republic, because their sympathies obviously lie with their perceived victim, Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
I make no apologies for these words, and anyone angered by them, please, go to Ft Hood and look into the eyes of the real victims. The tragedy at Ft Hood Texas did not have to happen. Consider now the feelings of those there and on every military installation in the world. Consider the feelings of the Warriors deployed into combat zones who now are concerned that their loved ones at home are in a combat zone.
Ft. Hood suffered an Islamic jihadist attack, stop the denial, and realize a simple point.
The reality of your enemy must become your own.
Steadfast and Loyal,
Lieutenant Colonel Allen B West (US Army, Ret.)
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Ret. Lt. Col. West. Can I come to Florida register and vote for you. You are oh so right! telling it like it is. I don’t suppose someone could clone you so that your words can be shouted off the roof tops for people to hear and via osmosis perhaps even listen to you. How brave you are to literally swim against the current “politically correct” phobia. Thank you for taking the bull by the horn and shaking up both the napping American leadership and people.
Outstanding article. In 2003, I was one of many thousands of veterans that signed a petition for LTC. West who was facing article 32 charges. He was allowed to retire honorably and in 2007 served as an advisor in Afghanistan. I respected Allen West as a military commander long before he sought political office. In an email I received from Afghanistan, West wrote” There are rules and regulations and there’s protecting your soldiers”. I just felt I’d never have to write a letter of condolence home to a rule and regulation”.
Mr. Mungle,
LTC (RET) West’s post was nothing more than a fallacy-filled argument about policies in our own country, aimed at getting him political attention and support for his Congressional campaign. Clearly, LTC(RET) West’s article succeeded in arousing your passion and he touched a nerve (which I suggest is what he intended to do). Yet, if you look beyond the empty rhetoric, he has little to offer in terms of real solutions. His post (and my response) had nothing to do with Iraq and Afghanistan; I introduced the background of his Article 32 hearing and the resulting Article 15 to show that, despite his oath to the contrary, he reportedly willingly broke the law when he believed it necessary to do so. I appreciate your personal beliefs about the Islamic religion and its belief system, yet do not believe they have anything to do with LTC(RET) West’s article (other than that he crafted his letter to intentionally arouse them). America will not alter its values, and we ought not to blindly follow those who suggest the need to do so.
Nevertheless, thank you for your service (both as a service member and, I’m assuming – a contractor or recalled retiree). Still, do not make the mistake of assuming that my opinion about LTC(RET) West and his article have anything to do with my belief about the ongoing combat operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. In deployemtns, we often focus our attention on the lowest common denominator since they tend to generate a majority of problems. Fortunately, my experiences have taught me that our adversaries in both countries are, indeed, the minority. More to the point, however, is the certainty that our senior military leaders share beliefs simillar to my own, and are guiding their operations accordingly.
Respectfully,
MAJ Tom Powers
After reading Major Powers response to LTC West, it is very clear that Major Powers is part of the problem and is a person that fails to understand the Islamic mindset or for that matter the Islam belief system. I have completed three tours to Iraq and three tours to Afghanistan, plus the two tours I did in Vietnam. I am no stranger to combat and with the particular mission I had within the intelligence community in Iraq and Afghanistan I had close and personal contact with those Muslims that are bent on killing us. Major Powers you need to regroup and get down to the facts about what a Muslim is and is not.
I believe there is more to this case than meets the eye, just as there has been with every event leading to murder by governments, genocide, so-called (but most often never declared) wars, and a slew of false flag operations carried out by different government’s black ops.
I think before everyone flies off the handle, as happened with both Afghanistan and the ongoing genocide in Iraq, that we should wait for the inevitable truth to come out. I, for one, cannot accept that the man was seemingly normal one hour, and on a killing spree the next. It just does not wash.
And just perhaps the troops should be brought home, the best and most righteous support they can receive, besides the fact that the primary duty of the military is to protect our shores, not to act in the best interest of global industrialists and the International banking cartel.
It has also been revealed that Major(sic)Hassan was on “Crack Pipe Barack’s” HS transition team. What in the HELL is going on in this country? hb AARP 3%er!
The soldiers who are charged with the duty to protect us (U.S.) are disarmed by Presidential decree. Thank you Bill Clinton.
LTC West is absolutely correct on all accounts. Add Obama and all his thugs to the list with MAJ Hassan. This morning when I turned on the news the first thing I heard was that two more young Americans were killed in Afganistan while Obama plays golf and polishes his Peace Prize. Those two men died in vain as a result of Obama’s plotting and political power grabs. Obama should be arrested for murder just like Hassan.
Get real America…the lights are turning dim.
Before I disagree with LTC (RET) West, let me first address the obvious; MAJ Hassan’s terrorist attack was despicable, and his actions ought to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. On this, I expect LTC (RET) West and I agree. At least, I think we agree. Then again, perhaps not. You see, in August, 2003 when then LTC West was a battalion commander in Iraq, he was accused of allowing his soldiers to “rough up” an uncooperative detainee – an Iraqi policeman who purportedly had information about a pending attack on LTC West’s convoy. According to a December 13, 2003 CNN news article, LTC West was accused of violating Articles 123 and 134, in that he allegedly allowed several soldiers under his command to beat a detainee before personally threatening to kill him. LTC West was further accused of taking the detainee outside and, after again repeating the threats to kill the detainee, discharging his firearm near the detainee’s head. The detainee gave the information up and, by all accounts, LTC West reported his actions to his brigade commander. Physically, the detainee was unharmed (well, other than the “roughing up” he received at the hands of some of LTC West’s soldiers.) Yet, LTC West’s actions speak loudly of what happens when a leader violates the trust his country has bestowed upon him. During his Article 32 hearing, LTC West is reported to have said that he knew the method he used was “not right”, but that he wanted to take care of his soldiers. He also testified that, “If It’s about the lives of my soldiers at stake, I’d go through hell with a gasoline can.”
Commander’s are responsible for the lives and welfare of their subordinates, no doubt about it. Torn between the desire to protect one’s soldiers and the necessity to send them into harm’s way – the pressure is brutal. At the end of the day, though, I’m grateful that most commanders do not buckle under pressure and break military law, believing it operationally necessary to do so. Once I made the connection with CNN’s story, though, I had to ask myself whether this changed LTC (RET) West’s message. For example, when LTC (RET) West suggests that those who are offended by his words should step aside, because “now isn’t the time for cowardice” – is he implying that what we really need is his style of leadership? The type of leader who, according to the U.S. Army, was not afraid to break the rules when real risks were at stake?
Keep in mind, as a service member who has twice deployed to Iraq, I am appalled at MAJ Hassan’s actions. An attack on our country’s warriors, perpetrated by another service member, is a despicable violation of the trust and faith we place in ourselves and upon each other. Yet, LTC (RET) West transitions quickly from the attack itself, speaking out against the political correctness that, he believes, has paralyzed our country. I cannot argue against his interpretation of the media reports that began emerging immediately following the massacre – I did not see them. Perhaps members of the media did try and paint MAJ Hassan as a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, as LTC (RET) West’s letter suggests. I can say that I spent several hours searching the internet, looking for “pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” and found only page after page of links that tracked back to the many blogs which picked up LTC (RET) West’s post. Perhaps there really are psychiatrists trying to spin a disorder out of this mess – Lord knows they’ve spent more than a few years trying to separate the link between the words personal and responsibility. In this, I share LTC (RET) West’s anger. Yet, the few terrorist incidents he describes is hardly tantamount to a comprehensive failure to protect our country, nor do they paint a picture of “prevalent trends,” as he suggests.
LTC (RET) West castigates the military leadership for transferring MAJ Hassan to Ft. Hood and for failing to Chapter (military speak for separate) MAJ Hassan from the service (citing MAJ Hassan’s previous statements, poor evaluation reports and his apparently investigated emails to radical Jihadist websites). It is easy to see how political correctness may have contributed to each of these actions (or inactions, depending on your perspective), yet there is not nearly enough information to make an informed decision. To begin with, there are clearly defined limits governing the actions of intelligence activities – particularly when an American citizen is being investigated. Those protections are designed to safeguard the rights each of us enjoy, in the same manner that “due process” and “innocent until proven guilty” do within our criminal justice system. If we erode those rights, in the name of security and protection, we sacrifice the very freedoms that make our country so unique. Some have suggested that, because MAJ Hassan was a Muslim, it seems irregular that he was trained as a psychiatrist, assigned as a PTSD counselor, and sent to Fort Hood to deploy into a combat zone. Yet, those thoughts are a disservice to the 4,000 or so Muslim service members in the U.S. military. Clearly, a more complete investigation needs to be conducted in order to identify the various points of failure associated with MAJ Hassan’s actions – yet I’m not quite ready to sacrifice our legal and regulatory foundation on the altar of doing “what is necessary”. The handful of terrorist attacks perpetrated against us by our own citizens does not constitute an assault, but our beliefs and values are most certainly being tested.
LTC (RET) West said that “No one in leadership seems willing to sound the alarm for the American people; they are therefore complicit in any future attacks.” Unfortunately, he has few actual recommendations other than suggesting that Congress suspend healthcare reform in order to “resolve the issue of protecting the American people.” To illustrate his point, LTC (RET) West points to groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as illegitimate terrorist organizations. While I dislike the organization, its messages hardly seem to resonate wildly across our country. And, although unpopular with many Americans, its actions are as protected by our laws as each of us are. Circumventing our legal system and using unproven allegations to disband an unpopular organization would be just as wrong as arbitrarily convicting a battalion commander of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Our laws and values mean nothing if we are willing to set them aside whenever they are inconvenient.
MAJ Hassan is no more representative of the Islamic faith than Timothy McVeigh represented Christianity. How many of us felt compelled to shout that Timothy McVeigh did not represent our faith after the Oklahoma City bombing? Similarly, how many of us feel compelled to distance ourselves from those who would murder a doctor for performing an abortion? As Christians, we know that the Timothy McVeigh’s of the world do not represent our faith. We know that those who murder doctors in the name of Christianity do not represent our faith. We know this, because we are Christians and we automatically exclude those who would commit such acts from what we see as our religion. Yet, we are often mystified when Islamic groups fail to immediately distance themselves from the most radical among them. Why would Muslim’s be any different? Muslim’s understand that the MAJ Hassan’s of the world do not represent their faith, the same way we inherently understand those who murder in the name of Christianity do not represent ours.
LTC (RET) West points out that Saudi Arabia funds nearly 80 percent of the mosques in the United States, while noting that the United States is not allowed to build churches and synagogues in Saudi Arabia. As a nation, we should not weigh our actions against standards established by other countries. The best way to illustrate this is with an old leadership adage; in order to lead, you must be out front. Tolerating differences is one of the many traits that makes our country great, and I would hate to see what America will become if we ever lose sight of those qualities. Perhaps I am just naive, but I would hope that anyone elected to Congress understands that protecting America means more than just protecting its citizens – it means protecting its values.
MAJ Tom Powers, student, Command and General Staff College, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.
You are exactly right, but how do you fight the P.C. crowd when they are the educators of our children. I am a world history teacher, and the lesson plans we are given, the films we are to show, combined with the gross lack of knowledge of the teachers (who by the way were educated in the brain washing system) make it darn near impossible to make a dent in the thought police’s goals. Then add the current administration to the mix…….
We are a huge contributing factor in the fall of our civilization.
Hear hear.
Thank you for serving your country and thanks for writing this piece.
I contributed to your campaign in no small part because of your common sense and love of your country. We need more men like you in positions to turn the tide.