National Security Online Resource Center

Since everyone seems to be making a list, we at NSORC figured that we should make a list of our own. So here we go:

5. D.C. Sniper/Anthrax Attacks – Both events followed the attacks of September 11 touched a nerve as people were scared more than ever. Ten people were killed by the sniper with 3 others seriously injured. The anthrax attacks killed 5 while injuring seventeen.

4. Fort Hood Massacre: The killing of 13 people by Major Nidal Malik Hasan is currently being investigated as a possible homegrown terrorist attack. The event raised questions about other possible planned attacks in the U.S.

3. Guantanamo Bay/Abu Ghraib – American treatment of prisoners from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was extremely controversial and subject of much debate in the United States and abroad. These events were a major blow to American image in the Muslim World

2. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – Both wars will continue into the next decade but the current decade was marred with stories, discussion and opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

1. 9/11 – History has yet to make a final judgment on how Sept. 11 2001 changed the paradigm of American National Security. However we can say that no other event in the past decade was more significant in the National Security realm than the terrorist attacks nearly 9 years ago.

At this point, everyone has learned of the tragic shootings at Fort Hood, where an army psychologist opened fire and killed thirteen people, including soldiers and civilians. The shooter was an army major who was apparently anxious about returning to the battlefield, as early reports indicated.

However, newer stories like this one suggest that the suspect may have had ties to Islamist radicals. According to the New York Times, the US government had been monitoring the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, for his ties to a radical Yemeni cleric with whom he communicated shortly before the massacre. While the content of the communications is unknown, the Times reveals that the cleric praised Hasan on his website after news of the shooting broke: “He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”

The army had closed the inquiry because they could find no evidence that Hasan would commit an act of violence. Sadly, but understandably, they were unable to predict this massacre based on their investigation.

We should be careful before jumping to conclusions about this event, whether your temptation is to blame the massacre on the overseas wars or on terrorists. In the meantime, here is a tribute to the victims.