Bitterness of war hits home, adds to Obama's dilemma

Nov 7, 2009, 17:35 GMT

Crosses and flags for the victims of the Fort Hood shooting outside the sanctuary of Central Christian Church in Killeen, Texas, USA 06 November 2009. According to authorities 13 people were shot and killed and 30 others were wounded on the Ft. Hood US Army post on 05 November 2009. The shooter was later identified in news reports as Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Those killed were at the base\'s Soldier Readiness Center where deploying and returning soldiers undergo medical screenings. EPA/BOB DAEMMRICH

Washington - The shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, illuminated the growing toll two wars have taken on the US military, as President Barack Obama nears a key decision in his young presidency about what to do in Afghanistan.

The suspected gunman, Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was said to be distraught about his pending deployment to Afghanistan by years of treating soldiers who have suffered from psychological problems after returning from fighting there and in Iraq.

Hasan, a devout Muslim, had reportedly told colleagues and family that he opposed the wars. A cousin told The New York Times that Hasan was 'mortified' about going to Afghanistan after hearing 'people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.'

The Army has been trying to cope with an alarmingly high suicide rate among soldiers returning from battle, usually attributed to post-traumatic stress syndrome. The Army has taken vast steps to improve treatment and institute methods for detecting symptoms. But those efforts failed at Fort Hood.

On Thursday, Hasan, armed with two handguns, allegedly entered a facility at Fort Hood, the largest US base in the world and a key staging facility for troops on their way to the combat zones, and opened fire, killing 12 soldiers and one police officer before being shot and hospitalized.

The Hasan case will do little to help Obama as he plots out a new strategy for a war in Afghanistan that has grown increasingly unpopular at home. Recent polls in the United States show the highest level of public opposition to the war in Afghanistan since it began in October 2001.

As of Friday, the Pentagon reports that 907 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war. The pace of US deaths in Afghanistan has surpassed those in Iraq. In October, 55 soldiers died in Afghanistan, the highest monthly toll since the war began.

Obama noted the tragedy of soldiers dying on their own soil after so many sacrifices have been made abroad, when he addressed the Fort Hood slaying for the first time Thursday.

'It's difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas,' he said. 'It is horrifying that they should come under fire on an Army base in the United States.'

All of this comes as Obama has been holding weeks of meetings with his top advisers and generals to plot out a new strategy for Afghanistan, and whether to oblige the request of his top officer there, General Stanley McChrystal, for an additional 40,000 troops.

Afghanistan could be a pivotal issue in Obama's young presidency with congressional elections less than a year away and three years out from his possible re-election bid. During the campaign, Obama pledged to refocus US efforts on Afghanistan after what he called years of neglect by his Iraq-war obsessed predecessor, George W Bush.

Obama identified the conflict in Afghanistan and along the border with Pakistan as the largest national security threat to the United States, and pledged to turn the momentum around and defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Republicans have been sharply criticizing the president for moving too slowly to devise a strategy and dragging his feet on McChrystal's request. The White House insists that Obama will take the time he needs to come to the right conclusion about the best way forward, adding that a decision could be announced in the coming weeks.

To demonstrate solidarity with the troops, Obama last week paid a late night trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to pay his respects to 18 American soldiers whose flag-draped coffins were returning from Afghanistan.

On Friday, Obama visited with soldiers wounded in Afghanistan at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, where Hasan had worked for years before being sent to Texas ahead of his Afghan deployment. The White House said the visit was planned before the Fort Hood massacre.