The massacre at Fort Hood, like the massacre at Virginia Tech, has left many people dumb-founded. It was shocking when it happened on a college campus, but it is almost beyond belief that it could happen on a well-guarded military base. This tragedy reminds yet again that there is no place safe from a madman with a gun.

In any such tragedy, one question always looms large: why?. In this case, pundits and the chattering chorus of “experts” who “advise” them implied, insinuated and at worst insisted the shooter, Major Nadal Malik Hasan, was a terrorist simply on the basis of his name, his faith, and his alleged statement that he was “a Muslim first and an American second”.

Would they have done the same if Hasan’s name was O’Reilly, and he claimed to be a Christian first and an American second? Not likely.

The reaction to “Muslim first, American second” was visceral and vocal, as if putting faith first was evil and traitorous. Yet many Christians do exactly that, pledging to love God and country, but leaving no doubt which comes first. That is lost on those rushing to judgment about Hasan’s motives.

It may turn out that Hasan is indeed a terrorist, but such a conclusion is far from obvious given what little we know at this point. What we do know is he joined the military at an early age, probably to escape his troubles and find comfort and opportunity in a more structured environment. It also appears he was a deeply troubled individual who felt persecuted and believed he was held back by authority figures who didn’t appreciate his abilities.

That back story is all too familiar; it’s one Hasan shares with Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh – two former American soldiers who did engage in terrorist acts – and neither of them was a Muslim.

If McVeigh was still with us, he’d likely be among the armed and dangerous attendees at Tea Party rallies. Certainly the views he expressed in an interview in Time magazine sound chillingly familiar today.

"I was angered at what the government did at Waco … I enjoy guns as a hobby … I do gun shows and I follow the beliefs of the Founding Fathers … I don't think it is right to take someone's beliefs and convict them because of those beliefs."

Too bad McVeigh didn’t extend his philosophy to the innocent unfortunates at the Murrah Federal Building. Instead, he chose to be not only judge and jury, but executioner.

As apparently did Hasan. In so doing, he joined a small group of frustrated little men who try to make themselves large by selfishly lashing out at others who have little if anything to do with their frustrations.

Thus Lee Harvey Oswald, whose desperate need for attention was thwarted in his own country and the USSR, in frustration gunned down a President who fought heroically against real tyranny.

Thus Timothy McVeigh dealt with his demons by blowing up a building filled with innocent people – perverting logic to claim that hideous act somehow atoned for the tragedy at Waco.

And thus Nadal Malik Hasan is likely to turn out to be just another frustrated little man terrorized by his own inadequacies. And even if it turns out he was associated with a terrorist organization, that is only an excuse to hide the deep-seated emotional and psychological problems that are the real cause of such behavior – and the well-spring of terrorists.

Thus Osama bin Laden, whose lunatic aspirations made him an outcast not only in his own country but in his own family, convinced others to blow themselves up in a mad attempt to achieve his ends. The extent of his lunacy is best measured in the fact that he somehow imagines he can achieve martyrdom by proxy.

The sad and ugly truth about most such men; for all their false bravado and their obsession with weapons, is that they are sniveling cowards afraid to deal with the reality of their own insignificance.

 ©2009 Tom Cordle