On April 10, a grievance by military victims of an enemy attack was partially addressed. However, it appeared a charade perpetuated by President Obama for six years would still leave the victims without that to which they were rightly entitled.
To fully understand the victims’ plight, some background is needed.
{mosads}The Purple Heart is a unique military award. Most military medals are issued based on “recommendations” by others. However, one who sheds blood—i.e., is killed or wounded—“in any action against an enemy of the United States” becomes immediately entitled to the Purple Heart. The underlying basis for the medal makes it a “combat-related” award, generating certain medical and financial benefits, such as hostile fire pay, for recipients.
For years, U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who were killed or wounded in those combat zones automatically received a Purple Heart. This included victims of “insider” attacks—where allied soldiers suddenly turned on their unsuspecting American counterparts, motivated to do so by the hateful jihadist ideology we have been fighting since 9/11.
On November 5, 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas, another “insider” attack occurred. Unlike the others, the attacker, motivated by this same hateful jihadist ideology, was one of our own—U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan. Like the insider attackers in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hasan proved to be a jihadist warrior-in-hiding. His murderous rampage claimed the lives of 13 and wounded 32 before he was wounded.
{mosads}The Fort Hood shooting victims were denied automatic entitlement to the Purple Heart. It took an act of Congress to address this injustice, allowing them to receive their medals on April 10.
The reason it took six years for the entitlement to be recognized stemmed from the Obama administration’s insistence the Fort Hood shooting not be attributed to terrorist activity, but to “workplace violence.”
This was done purely for political purposes to avoid the obvious link being made that the attacker was motivated by his Islamic extremist beliefs. Obama, having repeatedly assured us Islam—by definition—is a peaceful religion, reasoned one conducting such a violent attack cannot be Muslim. Thus, it was not Islamic ideology but a hostile workplace that led to the attack....
