It's Veterans Day again, November 11, 2009, and I'm still trying to process in my mind the 13 people who were killed at Fort Hood this past week by an Army Major who just happened to be Muslim, let alone be a Psychiatrist who treats our men and women in uniform. Why must everyone be so damn politically correct?
I was in my office at the Department of Veterans Affairs and just returned from a meeting with the Director when my blackberry started getting newsfeeds one after another about the shootings. (I left my bb in my coat at the office but I did hear the director's bb going off.) I think I began getting the information just after 2:45 p.m. MST. I could hardly believe what I was reading. There were shootings on base and one after another was being shot down...reported killings at the PX, then at a processing center. Information was murkey at best coming in from all sources. Then sirens going off in base housing telling people to remain inside. There were reports of 3 snipers on base killing people. It was exhausting not being able to listen actively to the news, but rather get the information off my blackberry. Then the news came that the shooter, an Army Major had been killed and two others had been taken into custody. It was nearing 4:00 p.m. and time to leave for the day. The final news I received from my friend, indicated that the Army Major was Muslim and that he was an Army psychiastrist.
At that point, I didn't care whether he was John Smith or Mike Anderson -- he was insane because he was a trusted officer taking the lives of our soldiers. I've never been politically correct and I have always advocated since working for the Department of Homeland Security in a previous position that we "NEED to PROFILE" because most of the terrorists today are Muslims. I remember calling my girlfriend after I left work, indicating that the SOB needed to be hung from the nearest telephone pole upside down, in full Army dress, and shot again by all of the victim's family members. I also said he didn't deserve to be buried in the United States. In fact, my emotions got the best of me and I just indicated that after we "killed him again" we needed to cut him up in milllions of pieces and toss his remains all over the middle east.
On my way home, I got a call from one of the producers on CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight. At the time, it was an unknown number calling from New York so I didn't answer the phone. I let it go to voice mail, but when I listened, the producer wanted to interview me about the shootings at Fort Hood. As many of you know, I wrote "Locked In Time - I Still Remember and Always Will"
www.outskirtspress.com/LockedInTime. At some point, I'm hoping that they interview me about the book and my PTSD as a result of being one of the officers involved in the identification and processing of the soldiers that were killed in the terrorist bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983. I'm not a professional psychologist so I wasn't exactly sure what they wanted to ask me. In any event, I called back and told "Emily B" (I won't use her last name, "You might not want to talk to me right now -- I'm trying to process what happened and to be truthful, I'll tell you what I think: That Army Major needs to be hung upside down by his boots and killed again." You have to understand, a military person with PTSD just heard that some Army Major shot and killed troops at Fort Hood while they were in a Military processing center getting ready to deploy. Emily asked me how far I was from Denver to their nearest television studio. I said about 20 minutes. Long story short, I started to go back toward Denver when I got the call back saying they had someone whom they were going to interview. I turned my car around, and started heading back to my home and about 20 minutes later, I receive a call from one of Larry King's producers indicating they would like to interview me. I absolutely love CNN (both Larry and Lou) because each of them tell it like is but being on a TV set with Larry King made it very real. Long story short - I got caught in traffic, made it to the studios just short of the showtime.
What would I have told Larry King: Who can make sense out this killing? Is it possible that the Psychiatrist who just happens to be Muslim was depressed or was he a terrorist. Of course he is a terrorist -- make no mistake about it. He entered a MPC (Military Processing Center) and killed innocent soldiers and to me - that makes him a terrorist. The fact, now later disclosed that the FBI had him under investigation tells me that they were wanting to "follow him" for some time to determine if he had any ties to Alqueda or other Muslim extremists. The government should be held accountable to the fullest for allowing this "ARMY MAJOR" to continue. From a PTSD perspective, I would have never allowed the military to assign that bastard to me in the first place -knowing how I feel about those who killed the 241 soldiers in Beirut. It's kind of like a female who is raped and asks for a female police officer to interview her instead of a male! Is it not her right to request a female based on sensitivity reasons. Maybe this Army Major should not be counselling our military soldiers about PTSD and the fact that the FBI was watching him should have been a red flag to the Army officers in command. The bottom line: I would have told Larry King that our country needs to stop being politically correct and take things at face value. People don't want to jump to conclusions but those soldiers are dead because the Army tried to be "Politically Correct" with an Army Major who happened to be a poor performer and Muslim. They gave him the benefit of the doubt and 13 people are dead.
Always - With a Heart of Love,
Bonnie Tierney
Author and Veteran
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