The Ft Hood Press Conference-Ignoring the 800 Pound Gorilla

"Psst, who's the big guy?"
"That's Pre-traumatic stress syndrome. Don't ask questions."


I just got finished watching the press conference with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Mike Mullen. They have announced a military-wide investigation into the Ft Hood incident. I should point out that news coverage cut off before it was over and there was a 3-4 minute period when audio was cut off for a emergency alert test. It is possible that something may have been said I am not aware of. What I did see and hear, however, was an exercise on the part of Gates and Mullen in ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room.

In Gates' preliminary remarks, he studiously avoided any mention of the burning question; was the incident at Ft Hood an example of 14 people having to die because authorities chose to ignore the red flags in the interest of political correctness? When asked by a reporter if he believed it was a case of terrorism, Gates ducked the question.

Some of the reporters carefully brought up some of the issues, which Gates and Mullen ducked, but none asked the question as I would have above. There was even discussion of the by-now tired old explanation of military mental health experts suffering from stress, which will be one of the areas of investigation.

As I said, news coverage cut off when the questions drifted into Afghanistan, so perhaps I missed something. I am willing to give Gates and Mullen the benefit of the doubt in their not wanting to prejudge the case and make an inflammatory statement they might regret. They were clearly being cautious. The proof of the pudding will be when they come back with their final report and recommendations. If it is a repeat of what they said today, then we can just get ready for the next attack.