Do Ft. Hood victims deserve the purple heart?
No, I think that there’s no justification for bestowing the medal to the victims. This is a different set of circumstances than the purpose of the Purple Heart. I felt the same way in my opposition to burying the pilot of the jetliner used in the WTC attack. His widow essentially demanded and got a burial at Arlington National Cemetary. Arlington has a distinct purpose. President Bush resisted the idea laying the pilot to rest at Arlington, but it was in the media’s interest (and as someone else said, ‘politically correct’) to relent to the demands of the pilot’s widow. We shouldn’t do that in the case of the Fort Hood victims.
