President Obama Denies Purple Heart to Fort Hood Terrorist Attack Victims: Joseph Gilbert
http://www.examiner.com/article/president-s-policy-denies-purple-heart-to-fort-hood-terrorist-attack-victims
Unfortunately for these brave Soldiers, the circumstances surrounding their deaths and wounds were that they ran didn’t fit into President Obama’s narrative that terrorism perpetrated by Muslim extremists doesn’t exist.
On November 5th, 2009, Major Nidal Hasan was standing among his fellow Soldiers at the Personnel Processing Center on Fort Hood, Texas. The center is a hub on post where Soldiers do the necessary paperwork before and after a combat deployment. Its here that they complete wills and powers of attorney and the myriad of other personal details that need to be addressed before they ship out to defend our freeedom in harm’s way, leaving their worried wives, husbands and children at home.
It was there, surrounded by our heroes that US Army Major Nidal Hasan opened fire. Eye witness reports state that he was shouting “Allah Akbar” as he gunned down and killed 13 Soldiers and civilians, including a pregnant woman and wounded another 31.
On November 17th 2009, Texas Senator John Cornyn introduced a bill to the Senate that would authorize awarding the Purple Heart Medal to those military victims. It would also award the civilian equivilent, the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom, to the civilian victims. The bill was co-sponsored by Senators Hutchison of Texas and Lieberman of Connecticut. In the House, the bill was introduced by Representative John Carter.
CNN quoted Congressman Carter as saying “As far as I’m concerned, this was an attack by an enemy upon American troops on American soil,” Carter said Tuesday at a Capitol Hill news conference. The bill “is about giving soldiers the benefits that other soldiers get when they are unfortunate enough to be killed or wounded in a combat zone.”
The debate is whether or not the person shooting them was an enemy combatant. The Obama administration has called the shooting an incident of “workplace violence.” If the president acknowledges the Fort Hood shooting an act of terror and Nidal Hassan as an enemy combatant, that would run contrary to his campaign talking points that Al Qaida specifically and terror in general is “on the run.:”
This follows the same narrative of refusing to call the attack in Benghazi, Libya a terrorist attack. In that instance, the administration initially blamed the attack on our consulate that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on a spontaneous uprising caused by an anti-Islam video.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly on 25 September, Obama mentioned this video six times. Never did he call the attack on U.S. soverreign soil that killed four Americans an act of terror.
A provision was added to the 2012 Defense Appropriations Act that would authorize the Purple Heart Medal for the victims of both the Fort Hood attack and the attack on Soldiers in Arkansas in 2009.
That was one of 32 provisions in the bill that president rejected. In a report from the Office of Management and Budget, keeping the provision for the Purple Hearts would cause the president to veto the bill.
“The Administration objects to section 552, which would grant Purple Hearts to the victims of the shooting incidents in Fort Hood, Texas, and Little Rock, Arkansas,” the veto threat states. “The criminal acts that occurred in Little Rock were tried by the State of Arkansas as violations of the State criminal code rather than as acts of terrorism; as a result, this provision could create appellate issues” (http://bit.ly/K8otuM).
On June 1, 2009, Muslim convert Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who had spent time in Yemen and was an avowed jihadist, killed one soldier and wounded another in a drive-by shooting on a military recruiting office in Little Rock. He pleaded guilty to murder, avoiding trial and the death penalty, and was sentenced to life in prison.
If these Soldiers were in Iraq or Afghanistan and were shot and killed simply because of the uniforms they wore, there would be no question they would receive the Purple Heart. These Soldiers were standing in Texas and Arkansas, but were still killed by a Muslim extremist simply because of the uniform they wore and what that uniform represented.
According to Army Regulation 600-8-22, among the conditions for which the Purple Heart Medal is authorized reads:
“The Purple Heart is awarded in the name of the President of the United States and per 10 USC 1131, effective 19 May 1998, is limited to members of the Armed Forces of the United States who, while serving under component authority in any capacity with one of the U.S. Armed Services after 5 April 1917, has been wounded or killed, or who has died or may hereafter die after being wounded.
A member described in this subsection is a member who is killed or wounded in action by weapon fire while directly engaged in armed conflict, other than as the result of an act of an enemy of the United States, unless (in the case of a wound) the wound is the result of willful misconduct of the member.”
The regulation continues…”It is not intended that such a strict interpretation of the requirement for the wound or injury to be caused by direct result of hostile action be taken that it would preclude the award being made to deserving personnel. Commanders must also take into consideration the circumstances surrounding an injury, even if it appears to meet the criteria.”
Unfortunately for these brave Soldiers, the circumstances surrounding their deaths and wounds were that they ran didn’t fit into President Obama’s narrative that terrorism perpetrated by Muslim extremists doesn’t exist.
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