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Questions Regarding The Fort Hood Massacre
Campaign for Liberty ^ | November 21, 2009 | Chuck Baldwin

Posted on 11/24/2009 3:18:24 PM PST by all the best

By now, virtually everyone has read and reread the copious news accounts of the terrible shooting a few weeks ago at Fort Hood, Texas. This column will not attempt to add new details to what is already a highly scrutinized tragedy. However, I do want to pose three basic questions that, to me, are extremely glaring and, for the most part, absent from the discussion.

Question 1: Why were the soldiers not armed?

After all, this is a military base; more than that, it is an Army base that emphasizes the training and equipping of frontline, combat-ready soldiers. For the most part, these were not clerks or cooks; these were combat troops. Fort Hood is home to the 1st Cavalry Division (the largest Division in the Army). Troops stationed at Fort Hood have engaged the enemy in virtually every hot theater of war to which American forces have been deployed. In recent conflicts that means Somalia, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Without a doubt, these are among America's bravest and best.

So, how is it that these intensely trained, disciplined, rugged, highly qualified warriors are not allowed to carry their own weapons on base? This makes about as much sense as the policy forbidding airline pilots from carrying their own handguns on board commercial airliners, or teachers not being allowed to carry their own handguns in the classroom. After all, judges are granted the authority to carry their own firearms into the courtroom. If we can trust lawyers, we should be able to trust soldiers, airline pilots, and teachers.

Question 2: If the federal government--including the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, etc., with billions of dollars worth of technology; tens of thousands of snoops, spooks, and intelligence gatherers; and myriad Patriot Act-type laws--could not protect US soldiers...

(Excerpt) Read more at campaignforliberty.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: forthood

1 posted on 11/24/2009 3:18:24 PM PST by all the best
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To: all the best
So, how is it that these intensely trained, disciplined, rugged, highly qualified warriors are not allowed to carry their own weapons on base?

I'll leave it to those with military experience to explain why things are done this way. However, my understanding is this is not a recent policy, that disarming of military personnel on base with exception of MPs and personnel actually engaged in training goes back many decades.

2 posted on 11/24/2009 3:27:46 PM PST by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: all the best

America is living in a very dangerous time. Now Obama and Hillary Clinton are looking for a treaty that bans all guns.


3 posted on 11/24/2009 3:28:04 PM PST by tessalu (Obama should not ever fool us again.)
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To: Sherman Logan

“I’ll leave it to those with military experience to explain why things are done this way.”

Good man! Trust your government and do not ask questions.


4 posted on 11/24/2009 3:30:25 PM PST by all the best
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To: Sherman Logan

Not many decades... just to that scumbag X42... the one with the stained blue dress that did not ask or tell...


5 posted on 11/24/2009 3:31:08 PM PST by Nat Turner
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To: all the best
Answer to the first question. Soldiers on a military base are never armed. Only the police on the base are armed. That is a truth of military life and goes back so long as there have been standing armies. It is due at least in part to the fear of mutiny which is much more likely when the troops are in their bases. That is why ships' crews are never armed and if a vessel carries small arms they are locked in an armory and "served out" at a time of imminent need.

A better question, given the times and the political impossibility of barring Moslems from bases is why are not all large groups of soldiers who are gathered for some sort of official or required function not guarded by armed Security Police? As with CCW in among civilians, this type of killer would be deterred by the probability that he would only be able to shoot one or two people before he attained glorious martyrdom. Then, of course one has to be worried about bomb vests.

6 posted on 11/24/2009 3:32:48 PM PST by arthurus ("If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, don't shoot an abortionist." -Ann C.)
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To: all the best

If this wuss had first hand knowledge about the military,
he would know that the thousands of military don’t walk around base with loaded weapons.

There is reason to question what happened but Baldwin blew it with his first comments.

This loon is anti war to start with.

Baldwin is a supporter of the 9/11 Truth Movement and has suggested reopening the investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks, given the possibility of U.S. government involvement in the attacks. (Baldwin does the enemy’s work)

he claims that the 9/11 attacks were a punishment from God.


7 posted on 11/24/2009 3:33:48 PM PST by SoCalPol (Reagan Republican for Palin 2012)
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To: tessalu
Now Obama and Hillary Clinton are looking for a treaty that bans all guns.

Bring it.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

8 posted on 11/24/2009 3:36:56 PM PST by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: all the best

Actually, I was referring to freepers with military experience. I believe a freeper who spent 20 years in the army or Marines knows more about the rationale for a particular policy than I do.

With no military experience it would be presumptuous of me to declaim on something I know nothing about.

This is not a problem for you, apparently.


9 posted on 11/24/2009 3:51:54 PM PST by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Nat Turner

See post #6.


10 posted on 11/24/2009 3:53:38 PM PST by Sherman Logan ("The price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections." Thomas Sowell)
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To: Sherman Logan

No problem at all.


11 posted on 11/24/2009 3:54:03 PM PST by all the best
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To: all the best

The writer of this article seems to be a little bit of an idiot.


12 posted on 11/24/2009 6:27:31 PM PST by ansel12 (Scozzafava/Romney 2012)
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To: all the best

btt


13 posted on 11/25/2009 2:23:17 AM PST by Marie (CO2 IS NOT A POLLUTANT! IT'S WHAT PLANTS BREATHE!!)
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