Update: The United States Army Will Award Purple Hearts to the Ft. Hood Jihad Victims

           The United States Army will award Purple Hearts to the victims of the violent jihadist attack at Ft. Hood, Texas in 2009, Fox News reports. 

The survivors and the families of those killed would thereby be entitled to certain benefits.  I would expect the Army also to award its corresponding civilian medal to those civilian employees killed or injured in the attack, as well as to the victims of the shooting at the Arkansas recruiting center earlier that same year. 

The decision came after the passage of the defense authorization bill by the lame duck Congress, which included a provision authorizing the awards in response to resistance from the Obama Administration to acknowledge the attack as an act of violent jihad (Islamic holy war).  See also my post from December, Conservative Analysis of the Federal Spending Authorizations: http://williamcinfici.blogspot.com/2014/12/conservative-analysis-of-united-states.html.  The Ft. Hood attacker was inspired by the leader of al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, with whom he corresponded. 

I have criticized the Obama Administration’s failure to identify the enemy and its motivation in several posts to this blog and have specifically championed the cause of awarding the medals to the victims of these jihadist attacks.  The awarding of the medals for those wounded in action necessarily acknowledges the attack was part of the War on Terrorism.  Congress, which acted in a bipartisan manner, deserves praise for righting this wrong.