Now Is the Time for Congress to Declare the Ft. Hood Shooting an Act of War

Now that the Ft. Hood shooter has been convicted by a court-martial of the 2009 shooting spree that killed 13 and wounded dozens more and has been sentenced to death, it is time for Congress to declare the massacre an act of war.  The killer, who made clear before, during and after his acts, that his motive was jihad (Islamic holy war), had been inspired by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  The Ft. Hood attacker had corresponded with the terrorist organization’s American-born leader.

With a federal declaration of the shooting at Ft. Hood as an act of war, the victims of this act of jihad would thereby be eligible for the purple hearts and certain combat-related benefits, like those killed or wounded abroad in the War on Terrorism.  More importantly, it would recognize that the Islamist enemy has continued to make the whole world its battlefield, including the American homeland, just as it did on September 11.  The September 11 Terrorist Attacks were treated by the Administration of President George W. Bush as an act of war and the military victims were treated accordingly.

Shortly after the Ft. Hood massacre, I already identified the nature of the attack in my post, Jihad at Ft. Hood, in November of 2009, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2009/11/jihad-at-ft-hood.html.  In February of 2012, in my post, American Casualties of Jihad in the U.S. Homeland Should be Awarded Purple Hearts, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/02/american-casualties-of-jihad-in-us.html,  I expressed support for proposals in Congress to declare the Ft. Hood massacre and the shooting at a military recruitment center in Arkansas as acts of war because of the refusal of the Obama Administration to link them to the War on Terrorism, despite the Islamist motivations of the attackers.  I identified this pattern of the Obama Administration in my post Arkansas, Ft. Hood and Benghazi: The Obama Administration’s Pattern of Failure in Identifying the Enemy, in October of that year, http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2012/10/benghazi-arkansas-and-ft-hood-obama.html. 

Apparently, the Obama Administration refuses to acknowledge the obvious religious motivations of these jihadists out of concern for being misunderstood to be blaming Islam or because of a political motivation not to admit the attacks were related to the War on Terrorism.  As I have noted repeatedly, this failure to identify the enemy and its motivations makes victory in the war impossible.  It is imperative that Congress defend the truth by setting the record straight and declaring these attacks acts of war.  The victims of jihad deserve such justice.