Rebuilding trust at Fort Hood

I wonder how the hundreds of soldiers gathered at the Soldier Readiness Center (SRC) at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 will ever learn to trust their buddies again.

Troops spend months, even years, building trust within their ranks. You get to know each other and rely on each other more than family. It's not always easy, but no matter how much drama is floating around in the group, everyone knows, simply knows, that when the going gets tough, the person next to you is the one who will save your life. And vice versa.

That's why last week's shooting is so horrible. Any murder is a tragedy, but these people were allegedly killed or injured by one of their own. Not only was the shooter a fellow soldier, he was an officer and a psychiatrist, both of which are positions of respect and safety.

Thank God he didn't die.

Too many times, these murderers mow down a group of innocent people and then kill themselves, or are killed in shootouts with police. This time, there will be justice.

On Thursday, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan was charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder. He was read the charges while being treated for his injuries at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

I have no doubt he'll be convicted. And when convicted, I have no doubt he'll be sentenced to death.

I'm sure we can all come up with ways to deal with Hasan, but the best way to honor those who died is to build a strong case, try the suspect and sentence him to the full extent of the law.

It's no secret that I'm a supporter of the death penalty, as long as it is used judiciously. I don't support the death penalty for anything less than violent crimes when there is no doubt whatsoever that the convicted person is absolutely guilty. In these cases, life sentences are a waste of taxpayer money and puts future communities at risk, should the convicted person appeal, receive parole or, less likely, escape.

Even if he gets the death penalty, Hasan could sit in prison for years like six former servicemembers who are on death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. One of them, Hasan Akbar, threw a hand grenade and fired his rifle into an officers' tent in Kuwait in 2003, "fragging" a captain and a major and injuring 14 others. He was sentenced to death in 2006, and is currently appealing the case. No one has been executed in the military since 1961.

Akbar, like Hasan, claimed he acted out of frustration of the way Muslims are treated in the military and because he felt the war targeted Muslims.

At what point did they think opening fire on fellow soldiers would help their case? They strengthened the stereotype they both claimed to fight against.

Hopefully the federal judges who sign off on Hasan's sentence, should he be convicted, and Akbar's appeal take a hint from Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Ten days after the Fort Hood shooting, another murderer who terrorized innocent people was put to death.

John Allen Muhammad, known as the D.C. sniper, killed 10 people from the trunk of his car during three weeks in October 2002. He was executed by lethal injection at 9:11 p.m. Tuesday at Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Va., after Kaine denied clemency.

Most of the news photos covering his execution were of protesters. One woman held a sign that said, "Life is sacred. Do not kill."

I wonder if she stood with that sign at gas stations around D.C. seven years ago?

I wonder if she'll be at Hasan's execution, should he be convicted, sentenced and strapped to the lethal injection table.

We're only at the beginning of this situation, and it will probably be years before justice is served. What warms my heart in the aftermath of this shooting, however, is to hear about the soldiers at the SRC who risked their own lives to save and protect their buddies. In this case, the buddy wasn't necessarily someone they knew, but a complete stranger standing nearby who had one thing in common: the military. No matter what happens, men and women in uniform will always have that reaction.

On Wednesday, we celebrated Veterans Day. Restaurants gave away meals, schools sent care packages overseas and communities worldwide held ceremonies and parades. This year's holiday honoring men and women who serve or have served in the military is all the more poignant because of what happened at Fort Hood. Not the shooting, mind you, but the instinctual actions of the heroes.

Maybe it won't take so very long for the folks who were at the Fort Hood SRC Nov. 5 to get their trust back again. I pray they haven't lost it at all.

(Nicolov, an assistant editor at The News-Item, writes "Don't Get Me Started" for each Friday edition. She can be contacted at julie_n@newsitem.com)

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