Fort Hood shooting victims to finally be awarded Purple Hearts. Washington Post.

Washington Post/U.S. Army

Victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting are finally going to be awarded the Purple Heart Medal. Washington Post. 6 years after Major Nidal Hasan went on a rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 30 more, soldiers wounded in the battle will receive the decoration awarded to soldiers injured in combat. Some civilians will receive the non-military equivalent Defense of Freedom Medal. Both medals can be awarded for people injured in international terrorist attacks, but until recently the military did not consider the Fort Hood attack as an international terrorist attack. Major Hasan was in communication with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula propagandist Anwar Al-Awlaki, who encouraged him to carry out the attack. Congress had to change the law to expand the definition of an international attack in include attacks where the attacker was in contact with terrorist organizations. Until the change of the law the Army officially declared the 2009 attack "workplace violence".

My Comment:

About damn time! The fact that it took 6 years for this to happen is a travesty. The 2009 Fort Hood attacks was of course a terrorist attack. Like the article said, Hasan was in contact with Anwar Al-Awlaki, who, before he got annihilated in a drone strike back in 2011, was a major Al-Qaeda figure, who is rumored to also have funded the Charlie Hebdo attackers. To argue that the attack in 2009 was anything other then am international terrorist attack was insane. The fact that Hasan was a U.S. citizen was irrelevant. If he was in contact with Al-Qaeda then he was a terrorist. The men and women killed and wounded by him were under enemy fire. 

As for the reluctance to declare the Fort Hood shooting a terror attack, I blame the president. It is my opinion that he downplayed the international angle in order to make it look like the threat of international terrorism during his first 4 years of his presidency was non-existent. He had an election to worry about and domestic programs to push. International politics and national defense have always been treated as a distraction by this White House at best. The last thing he needed was a major terrorist incident during his term. So it became "workplace violence" and a "mass shooting" instead of a terrorist attack. And of course, it allowed him to push his narrative of gun control as an added bonus. 

The fact of the matter was that this was always a political decision. To be fair, awarding the medals is a political decision as well. The Republican controlled congress will score points for this. But those are points that never should have been political in the first place. As soon as it was clear that Hasan was in contact with Al-Qaeda the wounded and dead should have gotten their medals. The fact that they didn't is a national disgrace. 

The medals themselves are mostly a symbolic gesture. That isn't to say they aren't important in themselves, but receiving a Purple Heart allows for some benefits. These include better access to health care and added preference for government jobs. It is about time that the victims of the Fort Hood attack got these benefits.