Obama Searching for the Root Causes of Ft. Hood Massacre

It looks like the man who killed 13 soldiers and police at Ft. Hood was a Muslim radical who hated America, resented our occupation of Muslim lands, would not be photographed with women, and chanted “Allahu Akbar” before he launched a one-man terrorist attack, but according to CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller, Obama wants to know what really made him do it:

Obama said he met today with FBI Director et al to discuss “what caused one individual to turn his gun on fellow servicemen and women.”

It’s hard not to be reminded of Obama’s famous post-9/11 remarks, which first came to light in the New Yorker last summer. This from a speech the week after the attacks in which he likewise wanted to know, what would cause a bunch of Muslim fanatics to fly airplanes into American buildings:

We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness. The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others. Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics. Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair.

You have to wonder: Will Obama still find that the fundamental tragedy was not the murder of 13 Americans at the hands of a terrorist, but the failure of our society to address his grievances before he was forced to turn to violence? Are we still to blame for our indifference to poverty, ignorance, helplessness and despair?

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