The Ft Hood Report-Disgraceful

Togo West


With all due respect to Togo West's military service, his report on the Ft Hood massacre was a disservice, both to the American public and to the military.

West's report is a product of the same political correctness that led to the massacre in the first place. It says nothing about what caused the killings in the first place-Islamic Jihadist terrorism. One can only suspect that someone verrrry high up in the government told him what not to say in the report.

It seems that what West is recommending is more bureaucratic reporting requirements that would only make the situation worse.

Recommendation: "Develop a risk-assessment tool for commanders."

The problem in the military is that Major Hasan was kept in the Army and promoted instead of being kicked out because of political correctness. He was a Muslim-and a very militant and vocal one at that. Despite all the warning signs, the Army was afraid to take the necessary action because they knew that Hasan would yell racism and bring in CAIR to file lawsuits galore. It is clear that even those above Hasan, the colonels and the generals, were afraid of discrimination complaints and/or lawsuits. And you know what those things lead to in an officer's career? Bad fitness evaluations, loss of promotions and being forced to retire.

It reminds me of when I was a young military policeman in Germany. What did unit commanders fear more than anything? DRs. (delinquency reports). What that meant was that if soldiers from their units got driving citations or were picked up by the MP's and charged with some offense, that was a "DR" that was hung on that unit. Too many DRs were a negative reflection on commanders' efficiency reports.

Noted that I am talking about the Army in the 1960s, and I don't know what has changed. It seems to me, however, that Major Hasan posed a problem for the Army, and nobody wanted to do anything about it. Had Hasan been a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant male with an attitude problem, that attitude would have been "adjusted" quickly and decisively.

Now comes Togo West' vanilla report that talks about this incident as if Pvt. Charles Mansen got drunk one night and shot up the post, and how can we prevent this from happening again? Well, you can't prevent it from happening if you refuse to acknowledge the threat and from where it is coming.

West's report has only highlighted and compounded the problem of political correctness that exists in our military. If it is not addressed and corrected quickly, we can only await the next attack.