fort hood

1. What are your thoughts, feelings, etc, as you read these articles?

I think that this article was very shocking because it was "friendly fire." But then, as I read into it, I learned that he was a Muslim and his fellow soldiers had been making fun of him and calling him things like "Camel Jockey" and other politically incorrect things. I understand that they were just joking around but apparently it really got to him.

2. What role do you think terrorism played in this massacre, if any? Why? Do you think that there was an terrorist organization behind the shooting?

I think that how our society acts about terrorism is pretty bad. Meaning that we always say things that could hurt people who are the race of the people that we are at war with, even though we obviously know that they are not terrorists. I think that this could have been a planned event from an organization but I don't think its likely. Regardless if it is an inside job or not, I bet that some people would consider it racist if we were to claim that it was a terrorist attack just because of what race he is.


3. What role did racism or religious persecution play in this incident? Why?

above.


4. Do you think a lot of Muslim Americans have the same feelings as this man? Why or why not?

I bet that there are a lot of Muslims that feel that way but I don't think that they are in the army or on a military base. I think that if there are Muslims that feel that way, then they should not be any leader of any sort in the military. This is unacceptable.

5. What do you think the military could have done to prevent this from happening? Why do you believe this? Were there signs that this man had the potential to do something like this? What were they?

I think that the military should definitely done something about it because he had already expressed his opinion on America and how he doesn't want to be in the military. I think that its a little bit ridiculous because if someone was saying stuff like that, they should not be able to be a leader of any sort. Those were signs that he could have done something like this.

6. Talk about the leadership of Kimberly Munley (the woman who stopped the shooter). What did she do? How would you have reacted in the same situation?

I think that Kimberly Munley had a huge amount of leadership. She risked her life to save other people. She was trained for something like this that you go right after the shooter right away, risking yourself, and there will be less fatalities. Even though she was being shot at, she still went on to take the shooter down. I would like to say that I would try to take them out but I probably would have ran or hid. I've had dreams about this sort of thing where I attacked the shooter from when they weren't looking. That's probably the only thing I would be brave enough to do.

7. What does this incident say about race relations in America? Specifically with Arab-Americans and Muslims? Is there a reason that Muslims and people from the Arab world feel a certain way about
America?

I think that people in America, often see all Muslims as the enemy just because of what happened in 2001 and who we are at war with. That doesn't mean that all Arab-Americans and Muslims are all bad and trying to conspire to kill Americans. Like I said before, if people accused it of being an inside attack, they would be accused of being racist.