by Mark Silva
President Barack Obama plans a stop today at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where some of the most wounded casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are being treated -- and where the Army psychologist accused of killing 13 and wounding 30 at Ft. Hood, Texas, worked for several years before reassignment in Texas.
The visit was planned before Thursday's shooting -- "horrific,'' the president called it -- according to the White House. Obama's predecessor, President George W. Bush, who ordered the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was a frequent visitor at Walter Reed, where he often met privately with the wounded and spoke publicly with reporters afterward.
Obama plans an appearance in the Rose Garden this morning at 11:30 am EST, on this day when unemployment has surpassed 10 percent for the first time in 26 years.
He wil travel to Walter Reed early this afternoon.
The accused gunman at Ft. Hood, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, is an Army-trained psychologist who had worked at Walter Reed. Most recently, he was working at the Darnall Army Medical Center, Ft. Hood's hospital, which has an extensive program to help soldiers cope with the stress of returning from war.
Hasan, a Virginia native schooled at Virginia Tech, worked at Walter Reed for six years before his transfer to the Texas base in July. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) has said that Hasan was about to be deployed to combat for the first time "and was upset about it." Hasan's cousin, Nadar Hasan, a lawyer in northern Virginia, told Fox News that deployment was his cousin's "worst nightmare."
At Ft. Hood, which is the nation's largest military installation, base personnel have accounted for more suicides than at any other Army post since the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, with 75 tallied through this July. Nine of those suicides occurred in 2009, counting two in war zones.
Three of the four brigades of the 1st Calvary Division based at Ft. Hood are in Iraq. The three brigades -- the first, second and third -- are making their third tour. The division's newest brigade, the fourth, has done two tours in Iraq, returning most recently in June.
Ft. Hood also is home to three of the brigades of the 4th Infantry Division, now in Afghanistan. The first brigade has done three tours in Iraq, returning most recently in March. The second brigade has also done three tours, returning most recently in September.
Comments
What's missing in this article?
There are 2 paragraphs on the killer, Nidal Malik Hasan, detailing that he's a psychiatrist, an army officer, where he was born, where he was educated, everything but.....
Golly gee. He's a Muslim. Think that had ANYTHING to do with it? Might it be just a LITTLE bit more relevant than where he went to college? Might it explain why he might not wish to follow orders and go to the Middle East, and instead, religion-of-peace style, start killing?
Posted by: Peter Zenger | November 6, 2009 2:36 PM
Let us hope that Obama has the same good grace of President Bush in not making the wounded soldiers part of a photo op. As the article states, Bush frequently visited Walter Reed and met privately with the soldiers, with no photographers or news people present. President Bush did the same with families of the victims of 9-11. Somehow, that same respect did not happen at Obama's visit to the dead at Dover AFB.
Posted by: Custer | November 6, 2009 2:39 PM
Mr. Zenger,
It was reported that Nidal Malik Hasan is of Jordanian desent and is a Muslim. This was reported on WGN and WBBM 780AM. Your posting is inaccurate. I would also suggest since you are not directly involved in the investigation, you do not know with any certainty what the motive was.
Posted by: Doug R. | November 6, 2009 3:16 PM
Yeah, Petey Zinger, it's a lot worse than even you guess---
He's a HOME GROWN moslem.....
Get under the bed with your shotgun cocked, Petey....
Yeah, religious devotion takes many forms....
Just ask that guy who shot the doctor in church in Kansas City.....
Well, Petey, at least that one should make you feel better.....
Who's on your hit list, PZ??
Posted by: ornery | November 7, 2009 8:17 AM
"Mr. Zenger,
It was reported that Nidal Malik Hasan is of Jordanian desent and is a Muslim. This was reported on WGN and WBBM 780AM. Your posting is inaccurate. I would also suggest since you are not directly involved in the investigation, you do not know with any certainty what the motive was.
Posted by: Doug R."
"Doug", if you can read (the evidence is out on that) you'd notice that I was chiding The Swamp (not WGN) for hiding the fact that Hasan was a Muslim. I used the words "this article", which should perhaps have given you a clue. And after you learn to spell the word "descent", you (and Mr. Silva) can then ponder the notion that Muslims who shout Allah Akbar and kill Americans probably aren't just mad because the Yankees won the World Series.
Posted by: Peter Zenger | November 7, 2009 8:58 AM
This guy is not supporting our troops on the battlefield, this does not seem to be a honest jester on his part, it more like another photo opportunity.
Posted by: Paul | November 7, 2009 4:51 PM
Mr. Zenger,
I am well aware of what your post stated and implied. You seem to be a racist and a bigot.
Posted by: Doug R. | November 9, 2009 8:23 AM