Obama On Fort Hood Shootings: "A Horrific Outburst Of Violence"

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday called a mass shooting at a Texas Army base "a horrific outburst of violence."

"We will make sure that we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident," the commander in chief said. "We are going to stay on this."

He said it's a tragedy to lose a soldier overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on American soil.

The Army says 12 people were killed and more than 30 wounded at the Army base at Fort Hood, Texas.

Obama also said his thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and families of the fallen.

Obama spoke late Thursday afternoon with Lt. Gen. Bob Cone, the commanding officer at Fort Hood, to express condolences and to offer any help Cone needs, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Obama was getting regular Oval Office updates on the shooting from his staff, led by his homeland security adviser, John Brennan.

Comments

[hhayden]

Only 288 comments on this subject. Not much to su'ck up to Obama on here I guess.

[hhayden]

Only 228 - sorry.

Where was Obama?

[rzan1]

It gets tiresome responding to stupidity such as yours. This was not Obama's fault.

[hhayden]

It wasn't? Why not? The attack on New York and Katrina were Bush's fault. Weren't they? How did Obama miss all the red flags?

[MakeAWish]

Maybe this should be a wake up call to end these two senseless wars. Our military is exhausted. The physical and psychological strain has reached a crisis. Bring our brave military men and women home.

[hhayden]

One war on two fronts

A terrorist attack only eight months into Obama administration. Where was he?

Don't give up on our brave men and women in uniform over one incident caused by one cra'zed individual. Forget the political correctness and focus on those who are likely to be dan'gerous.

[hhayden]

One wa'r on two fronts

A ter'rorist atta'ck only eight months into Obama administration. Where was he?

Don't give up on our brave men and women in uniform over one incident caused by one cra'zed individual. Forget the political correctness and focus on those who are likely to be dan'gerous.

[Bytown]

Time and time again, Obama has proven to be insensitive at best to military personnel both active and retired.

•On July 25, 2008, then presidential candidate Obama scrapped plans to visit injured American servicemen and servicewomen at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany during his whirlwind European campaign tour for the American presidency.

•On February 6, 2009, Obama dropped charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashri, the mastermind of the attacks on the U.S.S. Cole, and did so without speaking with family members of those killed until afterward.

•In mid-March, the very same president who has tirelessly advocated universal health care proposed a plan which would have forced combat-wounded veterans to pay for treatment of battlefield wounds through their own private insurance coverage, all in an effort to save $540 million, less than the federal government spent on providing digital television converter boxes to Americans.

•April the president was prepared to capitulate to demands by the ACLU to release photographs of detainee treatment and abuse from facilities across the globe, a measure which would have endangered military personnel because of inevitable terrorist reprisals.

•June, the president ordered that terrorists captured on the battlefield in the act of killing Americans be read Miranda rights--extending the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, a right reserved for Americans under the U.S. Constitution, to people trying to kill Americans--thus providing no incentive for them to reveal any other threats to American lives in the conflict at hand.

[hhayden]

No wonder bad things can happen when a president has all his priorities wrong.

[LURCHMONGER]

why are all my comments pending?

[CaliTLC]

Good question since they couldn't possibly be thought provoking.

[hhayden]

You must not be saying ha'teful things about conservatives.

[rzan1]

Why not go to a conservative news site? I am sure they will be happy to publish all your nonsense.

[hhayden]

They already know what's right.

[LURCHMONGER]

Huffington Post invades my free speech rights

[LURCHMONGER]

uh huh, thought you'd post that

[gaiuscaprica]

you are right, very frustrating that we are censored. HP solicits and exist mainly due to our opinions. Not surprising tho' the Queen bee is a dim bulb.

[Sam 32]

Obama failed miserably yesterday.

[LURCHMONGER]

Yesterday?

[hhayden]

And all the yesterdays since January.

[Ramirez]

Here is the video of Obama's "Pet Goat" remarks. He rambles and dithers for over two minutes before finally mentioning the unfolding tragedy at Ft. Hood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW7PAhHKPyo

This is not a moment of inspiring leadership.

[firewmn]

You read like a frick'n idi0t..... I want my two seconds back..

[hhayden]

If that's your best thought, you have failed miserably.

[Hello2u]

Was he having a Bush at school reading/911 moment?

[gaiuscaprica]

He was very Bush like. He even gave shout-outs before addressing the sh00ting. It's ok tho' first stup!d thing he did in front of the camera.

[gaiuscaprica]

Ramirez-

I would post all of your boys("Man and fish ,can live together"- W) stup!d moments, but it would take me a life time. Stop being a tr0ll.

[hhayden]

So, why can't men and fish live together? Are you banning SCUBA diving now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjS7JuOcm6g

[BethinIllinois]

Obama's own "my pet goat" moment. Everyone's waiting to hear what he's going to say in response to this horrific tragedy and it takes him almost 2 minutes to get to it -- first he has to give a "shout out" to people in the crowd.

Obama -- we don't care about Joe Crow or whoever (or at least we didn't at that moment). We cared about Fort Hood and the tragedy there.

[LeighAnnes]

2 whole minutes? Wow. How could you stand waiting that long?

[hhayden]

It's not the time, it's his priotities.

[Blufftonian]

Actually it took him nearly 3 minutes to get to it. I was driving and listening to him on the radio. It was surreal. He kept thanking staffers, and giving his "shout-out," with a lightness that made me wonder if he had even heard about the killings. When he finally got around to the Ft. Hood news, he spoke in measured and appropriate terms. But why he began with such light banter I cannot understand.

[BethinIllinois]

I was listening to the radio as well -- and they made a big deal out of the fact there here was the president responding to the shooting. And I listened, and I listened, and I finally turned it off, because it didn't appear to actually BE about the shootings. It was very, very strange.

[Blufftonian]

I stand corrected. A little over 2 minutes.

[Golden Ticket]

Muslim violence is very progressive.

[rain33]

this should be wake up call for barack to don't send any more troops in afghanistan. it was wrong for the military officer to kill innocent soliders but he should never signed up for the military at all. here we go with right-wing critics calling it racism and using 9/11 again. the military should do a serious background check on all soliders before sending them to different locations. my heart does go out to the families and wounded victims.

[hhayden]

It's more reason to go after them. They do not respect your weakness - they take advantage of it.

[rain33]

either way its totally wrong! too much violence makes our kids even more distrub than ever. fixed noise mourning show are being more hypocritical, disivise in tactics etc than pyscho beck and hannity combined. gosh, this man might something personal against soliders that he never got along with.

[DFL]

Hey NRA, tell us again why we need more guns floating around, also I wonder if Bachmann has blamed this on Barack yet?

[Glocksf21]

you are kidding right, the nra? I blame religion. No one is blaming President Obama!!!

[LURCHMONGER]

Yeah thats right, if there were fewer guns than those guns wouldn't be able to walk in on their gun legs and shoot people.......idiot

[gaiuscaprica]

The guy is in the military of course he had a gun. Unless we use slingsh0ts nowadays.

[Peter Noble 2]

If only this was about the NRA. Ironically this does not help the NRA's constant theme that if we were all were armed there would be less violence. In this case the violence occurred on a military base: Fort hood was bristling with guns. The element of surprise and determination took out, I read 12 soldiers and wounder many more before 4 bullets incapacitated the shooter. He was not a Redneck gone Postal shooting up a school, Mall or Church on leave from the Fort Hood.

This incident has the potential to create fear, revenge killings and attacks on innocent Muslims.

And I'm sure Obama will be blamed by wing nuts for this. On that we agree.

[hhayden]

I don't know, but I am. Why didn't he see the signs? Didn't we establish with Bush that the president was supposed to be on top af every little detail?

[hellboundtrain]

I know that President Obama did not start the war in Iraq, but the horrific outburst of violence started when we arrived in Baghdad. Obama should bring our men and women home from everywhere. This would stop the negative affects on the budget and save the country from having to deal with the dead, the maimed, and the effects of PTSD, which lingers for years.

It would not be surprising to find out that the U.S. has the largest percentage of PTSD-effected than any other country in the world, except perhaps Iraq. And, with stop-loss policy these men and women are very deeply affected. Their anger with the betrayals our nation would be very great. How do you fix that?

[1will]

Obama will be apologizing to Muslims for the shooting by the end of the weekend.

[Beatriz09]

That wouldn't be a bad idea, if it is true that one of the causes in this case was anti-Arab racism ... .

[1will]

Hmmm.....I grew up as a white kid living in an all black neighborhood and attended black schools. Using your logic I would be justified in shooting up a room full of blacks because of past racism I experienced.

[onwardsandupwards]

So your entire contribution to this tragedy, is to try to stir up more ill-feeling?

Shame on you.

[HSC55]

I'm sure Fox news will cut and paste some footage to make it look like he does.

[Sparhawk]

he started with his shameful news conference. 2 mins giving shout outs to his buddies before even mentioning anything about Fort Hood. Disgraceful

[1will]

It was discraceful. The first words out of his mouth should have been for the families of the slain and those wounded fighting for their lives. Instead he thanked every supporter in the room and gave shout outs to lackeys.
Obama is not exactly a class act.

[ctom]

Prayers are with the fallen but nothing but curses on this individual who doesn't deserve to wear the uniform.

[Siebenstein]

disregard last post, wrong threat