Excerpt:
Suppose that on Nov. 4, 2009 – the day before he would open fire on his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 30 – Major Nidal Malik Hasan had been arrested by military police and charged with intent to commit acts of terrorism. Where would his case stand today?
My guess: a public uproar, complete with exacting doubts about the strength of the evidence against him. This would be followed by sage lamentations about how a "Christianist" military had indicted a patriotic Muslim-American simply for having religious scruples about the justice of our wars. Further down the line one can imagine a Pentagon apology, a book contract, a speaking tour.
This scenario is worth thinking about on news that as many as eight officers, most of them doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, will be censured for failing to monitor, supervise and discipline Maj. Hasan properly as his behavior became increasingly suspicious. The censures will likely bring the officers' military careers to an end. Whether they'll do anything to change the mentality that permitted Maj. Hasan's career to proceed unchecked until he brought it to its ghastly conclusion is another question.