A war within

Was it a spontaneous moment of lunacy, or something more complicated? That's but one of the questions authorities at Fort Hood, Texas, will be trying to answer in the coming days, or weeks.

As of yesterday afternoon, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the killing of 13 people and wounding of 30 others at the base 100 miles south of Dallas, was reported to be on a ventilator and in a coma from wounds he received during a rampage in which he was alleged to have fired at people in a processing center for those going overseas or coming home from deployment.

Reports from Fort Hood were that Hasan, a psychiatrist born and raised in Virginia whose medical education was paid for by the military, was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and was reluctant to go. There also was conjecture that Hasan's bad feelings about his deployment and his service in the Army had been worsened by the fact that as a doctor, he'd heard horror stories from soldiers who had been in those countries. An aunt also told one news agency he had felt harassed about being a Muslim after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and wanted to leave the Army. (Muslim leaders condemned the shooting.)

None of that, of course, would explain why someone would randomly fire on innocent people. And for all Americans, the priority is, as President Obama said, to pray for the victims and their families, whose loved ones were struck down even as they prepared to risk their lives in service to their country.

North Carolina is home to large military installations, and for residents throughout the state there is perhaps an extra "connection" of sorts to the families, friends and acquaintances of victims. The obligation to those victims on the part of authorities is to come as close as they can to an explanation, which would be little comfort but at least perhaps provide some solace in knowledge of the truth.

All Americans want to know: Was this a random act? Was there something in Hasan's recent experience that may have prompted it? Was there any way to have prevented it? Had there been any indication the suspect suffered from some kind of mental trouble? Were any of his victims known to him?

Such unspeakably tragic episodes (the infamy of the Virginia Tech shootings in April of 2007, for example) sometimes have no linear explanation. But the victims and their families are due the most thorough investigation it is possible to have. And prayer, too.

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