Obama Praises Those Who Ended Fort Hood Violence
Saturday November 7, 2009 11:09 a.m.
Photo Credit: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Saturday that the training designed to keep U.S. forces safe abroad prevented further deaths and ended the rampage at Fort Hood.
He praised those who serve or have served in uniform and reminded the public of their diversity — a move designed to calm tensions around the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
"They are Americans of every race, faith and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers," Obama said in his radio and Internet address, airing the weekend before Veterans Day.
"They are descendants of immigrants and immigrants themselves. They reflect the diversity that makes this America. But what they share is a patriotism like no other."
The president asked for patience while officials piece together what happened Thursday in Texas at the nation's largest Army post. The shootings left 13 dead and 30 others wounded.
"We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing," Obama said. "But what we do know is that our thoughts are with every one of the men and women who were injured at Fort Hood. Our thoughts are with all the families who've lost a loved one in this national tragedy."
But Obama said while "we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."
"We saw soldiers and civilians alike rushing to aid fallen comrades, tearing off bullet-riddled clothes to treat the injured, using blouses as tourniquets, taking down the shooter even as they bore wounds themselves," Obama said.
"We saw soldiers bringing to bear on our own soil the skills they had been trained to use abroad — skills that been honed through years of determined effort for one purpose and one purpose only: to protect and defend the United States of America."
Obama's aides were working to make way for Obama to attend a still unscheduled memorial service. The White House's top spokesman said Obama would attend that service and emphasized it would take place at the families' convenience and that it will not be dictated by the president's schedule.
Obama planned to make remarks Saturday afternoon to reporters in the Rose Garden before departing to the presidential retreat at Camp David for a night away from Washington. He is to leave Wednesday for a 10-day trip to Asia.
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On the Net:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
There are 9 comments
@FACTME Ah, those pesky, pesky facts...always getting in the way of RepubliCANT talking points. What's a teabagger to do?
5.Mustang
NOPE! NO PHOTO OP HERE:
http://thegooddemocrat.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/missio accomplished.jpg
OR OVER HERE:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/presidentbush/images/2008 08/19/jackson_square.jpg
HOW ABOUT UP HERE?
http://www.floppingaces.net/wp-content/uploads/2009-01-15 bush-on-911-rubble.jpg
MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, UNDER HERE:
http://driventotears.com/PoliticalCartoons/BushCheneyTest fy.JPG
#6
LMAO.........
there were plenty of phot ops of bush visiting wounded soldiers and he remarking " it makes me feel good to visit these veterans", etc. etc.
Bush can crawl on his hands and knees till hell freezes over and he will never be anythiing other than responsible for the deaths and destruction of countless lives, he should never be forgiven. He is a war criminal.
#4
No, it is not ironic. BO has nothing worthwhile on his plate, he is never to busy for a photo-op, running the country, you got to be kidding.
Bush never looked for fame or glory or recognition, Bush frequently visited Walter Reed, no fanfare, no photo-op. As for BO, that is all he stands for, fame and glory and recognition, he is a narcissist.
1.Mustang cnt'd
Kind of ironic, isn't it?
1.Mustang
Hasan was scheduled to be deployed to Iraq "and appeared to be upset about that," Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/ ndex.html
"Just something that had to be done"? Like invade Iraq? Now was that because of the WMD Hussein did not have or the nonexistant Hussein-Bin Laden connection? Dead-men-dont-talk mission accomplished?
Did he tell those soldiers and families if he ever did find those "no not under here" WMD?
@Mustang - one might ask the same question as to why Dubya never took the time to witness the return of the bodies of American service members from Iraq.
Besides, President Obama had a bit of a full plate at the time, y'know...running the country, getting the health-care-reform bill passed in the House, that sort of thing. And Dubya's got lots of time to catch up on his public appearances now that he can't President any more.
George W. Bush Visits Fort Hood, Wounded Soldiers
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) ― Former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, visited wounded soldiers and their families near the site of the worst mass shooting on an Army post in the United States.
The Bushes made their private visit to Fort Hood's Darnall Army Medical Center on Friday night. Bush spokesman David Sherzer said in an e-mail that the couple thanked Fort Hood's military leaders and hospital staff for the "amazing care they are providing."
An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 in a shooting rampage Thursday at a Soldier Readiness Processing Center on the post.
Hasan was wounded by a civilian police officer and was taken into custody.
Source: http://cbs11tv.com/wireapnewstx/George.W.Bush.2.1298076.html
No fanfare, no photo-op. Just something that had to be done. Where is obama, why has he not made this trip to Ft. Hood?
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