PrintNovember 11, 2009
Victims, Villains, and Heroes
American soldiers find themselves once again caught in the inhumane crossfire of the media. Since the Vietnam War, the media has designated soldiers as falling into one of two unfortunate categories: victim or villain. The current struggle to make meaning out of the Hasan Nidal terror attack at Fort Hood is indicative of the immoral rhetorical frame created by the national punditry. Even the president has entered the fray, departing from his rash indictment of the Cambridge police officer to urge caution in judging Nidal's actions. For NPR and related "journalistic" outlets, Nidal is a "victim" of the trauma associated with war. Though he had never been deployed, as a psychologist he witnessed the trauma of combat soldiers, which he found "too much to bear." Consequently, because of America's "warmongering character," psychologist soldier Nidal Hasan "snapped" and fired more than a hundred rounds at Fort Hood, killing a dozen American...(Read Full Article)
