Nidal Hasan, terrorist or mass murderer?

Nidal Hasan, terrorist or mass murderer?
by Chaplain Kathie
Wounded Times Blog
November 5, 2012

Most of the talk about the Fort Hood massacre has been the passionate insistence that this act be labeled the act of a terrorist.

The definition of terrorism is "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion" while the definition of a mass murderer is "a person who is responsible for the deaths of many victims in a single incident."

The legalities are beyond my ability to understand.

Trial delays vex Fort Hood survivors three years after rampage
By Jim Forsyth
Reuters
November 4, 2012

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Survivors of the Fort Hood massacre say they are frustrated that the man accused of the shootings three years ago has yet to face a court martial.

Major Nidal Hasan is accused of opening fire on a group of soldiers who were undergoing medical exams at the Army post in Texas on November 5, 2009, in preparation for their deployment to Iraq. Thirteen people died and 32 others were wounded in the attack.

Hasan was charged immediately with first-degree murder, which could result in a death sentence if he is convicted, but three separate trial dates have passed.

"It's very frustrating. It has not allowed us to have any closure whatsoever," Kimberly Munley, the civilian police officer who shot Hasan and helped end the shooting spree, told Reuters. "A speedy trial is definitely not what has taken place."
read more here

I remember Fort Hood from a visit there months before this happened. I was in the food court sitting there seeing all the families with soldiers in uniform and none of them carrying weapons. It was home to them.

Purple Hearts were talked about and doctors were worried Hasan was psychotic but somehow he managed to be in a position to treat other soldiers for mental health.

My own emotions cannot come close to what these families have gone through. There is what is "legal" and then there is what is right. Sometimes one does not belong to the other. Maybe in this case, they are waiting to see what the evidence proves before they change murder to terrorism?

I don't know but I do know these families deserve everything we can give them simply because the chain of command let Hasan be where he was no matter what they knew about him. If they had taken action on removing him from the Army before all of this when they suspected he may be psychotic, none of this would have happened.