FORT HOOD, Texas — President Barack Obama, speaking Tuesday
at a memorial service for the Fort Hood shootings, called the massacre painful
and incomprehensible, the more so because of where it occurred.
“This is a time of war. And yet these Americans did not
die on a foreign field of battle,” Obama told more than 15,000 soldiers
and others gathered Tuesday afternoon at the nation’s largest military
installation, four days after the worst act of violence on an American base.
“Here, at Fort Hood, we pay tribute to 13 men and women who were not able
to escape the horror of war, even in the comfort of home.”
The president and first lady Michelle Obama spent about 90
minutes comforting the relatives of those slain by an Army psychiatrist and
also those injured in the rampage. They were then scheduled to visit families
of the victims, as well as those wounded in the shootings.
In his remarks outside III Corps Headquarters, Obama tread
carefully about the motives of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alluding to his Muslim
faith without directly blaming it. Police shot Hasan four times to end the
attack, and he emerged from a coma over the weekend.
“It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that
led to this tragedy. But this much we do know — no faith justifies these
murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with
favor,” Obama said. “And for what he has done, we know that the
killer will be met with justice — in this world, and the next.”
Obama did not shy from the details of the horrific acts —
though he dwelt as much on the acts of heroism as on the killing spree.
“Soldiers made makeshift tourniquets out of their
clothes. They braved gunfire to reach the wounded, and ferried them to safety
in the backs of cars and a pick-up truck,” Obama recounted.
As he did in his inaugural address and in a speech in Cairo
meant to offer a fresh U.S. relationship with the Muslim world, Obama
emphasized that multiculturalism makes America strong. He subtly denounced the
sort of extremism that may have fueled Hasan’s violence.
“We are a nation that guarantees the freedom to worship
as one chooses. And instead of claiming God for our side, we remember Lincoln’s
words, and always pray to be on the side of God,” Obama said. “We are
a nation of laws whose commitment to justice is so enduring that we would treat
a gunman and give him due process, just as surely as we will see that he pays
for his crimes.”
And he paid homage to the victims, mentioning them by name
and giving a brief biographical sketch of each.
“We knew these men and women as soldiers and
caregivers. You knew them as mothers and fathers; sons and daughters; sisters
and brothers,” he said. “But here is what you must also know: Your
loved ones endure through the life of our nation. … Their life’s work is our
security, and the freedom that we too often take for granted. Every evening
that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every
moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness —
that is their legacy.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
