Mother Jones
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During last week’s memorial service for victims of April 2 Fort Hood shooting, President Barack Obama spoke about the lingering hurt from the previous attack on the base in 2009. “Part of what makes this so painful is that we’ve been here before,” Obama said. “This tragedy tears at wounds still raw from five years ago. Once more soldiers who survived foreign war zones were struck down here at home, where they’re supposed to be safe.” Yet, when victims of the first Fort Hood shooting invited the president to see those wounds up close, he refused, without explaining why.
The morning of the memorial, retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, who was shot seven times during the 2009 Fort Hood rampage, requested that the Obama meet briefly with victims and their families while he was on base. Lunsford’s letter, which was addressed to the president’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, also described survivors’ disappointment with how they had been treated:
As you may know, the President and high-ranking members of the military promised me, my family and the other Fort Hood terror attack survivors that the federal government would “make them whole.” After more than four and one-half years, however, the government has yet to make good on this promise.
We believe that if the President could hear, first-hand, our plight and our mistreatment at the hands of his bureaucracy, that he would take the steps needed to set things right. Therefore, we ask for ten minutes of his time.
In the years since Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire in a crowded Fort Hood medical center, killing 13 people and wounding another 32, victims have struggled to get medical care and financial benefits. This is largely because of how the incident has been labeled. Although Hasan is an avowed jihadist with ties to Al Qaeda, the Pentagon considers the attack to be workplace violence rather than terrorism or combat. Thus victims aren’t eligible for many benefits and honors available to soldiers wounded or killed in action. (For more on this topic, see How the Obama Administration Failed the Victims of the First Fort Hood Attack.)
This article is from:
Victims of The First Fort Hood Attack Asked The President for a Meeting. Here’s The Response.
