Posting Date: November 6, 2009
Race and religion always come up in ugly side of tragic killings
The U.S. Military is not very forthcoming but there have been hundreds maybe even thousands of American soldiers who have committed suicide following their service in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
American Military personnel have been put under great stress, even more than the American people after the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001. There is no draft and consequently, every soldier who enlists in the military faces the likely chance they will fight in either country and serve more than one tour of duty, with some serving as many as four one year tours.
That's stressful enough. Then add the situation of an American Arab who is pushed into joining the military by his parents. A medical professional and psychiatrist himself, Major Malik Nadal Hasan went over the edge Thursday after waging what he concluded was a losing fight to prevent his deployment to Iraq and killed 13 of his military colleagues and wounded 30 more. He was shot himself and almost taken for dead until it was discovered he was still alive.
No one needed to say that Hasan was both an "Arab American" and a "Muslim." It was implied in his name and the public and media were already shaking their heads turning the attack into another act of "Islamic terrorism."
Yet at Fort Hood where the massacre took place, the military base there has seen the highest number of suicides and violence by members of the military over any other military base. Hasan had been fighting to prevent his deployment to Iraq, and being Arab American and objecting to the war, the military should have taken him out of play. For his safety and the safety of his fellow soldiers.
The Iraq war is not like the Afghanistan War. The Iraq war is an unjust, illegal military occupation and invasion that has been pock-marked by war crimes and terrorism by both sides. It was prosecuted not to protect Americans from international terrorism but to line the pockets of former Vice President Dick Cheney and his company Halliburton.
Instead, Iraq has transformed into a welcome mat for every terrorist in the world who wants to kill American soldiers, placed there by Cheney and former President George W. Bush who exploited the post Sept. 11, 2001 fears of the American people to justify their unjust invasion.
Afghanistan is a different story. It is the source of the al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban who planned and executed the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Tragically, while Bush and Cheney directed all of our American resources to Iraq, Osama Bin Laden, the architect of the terrorism and the founder of al-Qaeda, remains alive.
Hasan, like most Arabs, opposed the war in Iraq. That's clear from his repeated actions to protest his assignment there. Was he being targeted by superiors who hate Arabs the way Bush and Cheney hated Arabs to justify an unjustified war in Iraq?
Major Hasan's conduct is criminal. It is appalling. He is alleged to be the gunman and subject to criminal prosecution, he should be punished for his alleged actions in taking the lives of 13 innocent Americans and injuring 30 more.
His conduct does not represent in any way Arabs who live in America like myself or others. We are patriotic and have served this country in the military with honor and distinction and even without regard for our own personal dislikes for the wars we have been thrust into fighting or supporting.
Ironically neither Bush nor Cheney served in active duty military service; Bush used his father's clout to avoid service in the frontlines of Vietnam to instead work on political campaigns for his father's friends during the war while "serving" in a reserve unit.
It should be noted that during the Vietnam War, reserve and national guard units were hideaways from overseas frontline war service and were not easy to join as they are today. In fact today, volunteers enlist in the military and the military is now supported by members of the Reserves and National Guards in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We Arab Americans have not shied away from our patriotic duties. Thousands of Arab Americans are now serving in the military with honor and distinction, including the courageous selfless act of one Arab American soldier Mansoor.
When a thrown grenade bounced off someone's chest of and fell to the floor near his fellow troops on On Sept. 29, 2006 near Ramadi in Iraq, Arab American Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor acted out of instinct.
Monsoor was recognized for his heroism, heroism that took his life to save the lives of other soldiers in his platoon in the middle of an ugly and unjustified war in Iraq.
That is the man Americans should remember when the word "Arab" comes up in discussion, Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor, not the tragic Major Malik Nadal Hasan who represented a tragic and growing pool of American soldiers of all races who have been pushed to the end of their limits by this conflict.
(Ray Hanania is an award winning political analyst and media consultant and who served in the U.S. Air Force and is recognized with a Vietnam Era Service Ribbon among others. He is a member of the American Arab Veterans Group called APAAM Association of Patriotic American Arabs in Military, www.APAAM.org)
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WJJG Radio 1530 AM/Monday thru Friday 8-9:30 am/Studio Line: 708-493-1530
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Alternate email: rghanania@gmail.com
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