Obama: ‘Entire nation is grieving’
Published: November 6, 2009
Updated: November 6, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Friday the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged people not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officers investigate the shootings.
Obama met Friday morning with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other federal leaders to get an update on what they’ve learned. Thirteen people were killed and 30 others injured in the shooting rampage at the Texas Army post on Thursday. The suspected shooter is an Army psychiatrist; his motive remains unclear.
“We don’t know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts,“ Obama said in a Rose Garden statement otherwise devoted to the economy.
“What we do know is that there are families, friends and an entire nation grieving right now for the valiant men and women who came under attack yesterday,“ the president said.
Obama ordered the flags at the White House and other federal buildings to be at half-staff until Veterans Day. He called it a modest tribute to those who were slain and to those who put their lives on the line in the armed services each day.
“We stand in awe of their sacrifice, and we pray for the safety of those who fight, and for the families of those who have fallen,“ Obama said.
He promised that that his administration would update the nation as it learns more about what happened, and why, at Fort Hood.
Also today, a spokesman said the president will attend memorial service for those killed.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Friday said a service will be scheduled at the convenience of the families who lost loved ones during one of the largest mass shooting on a military base. Gibbs says a service has not yet been scheduled.
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Reader Reactions
Obama got himself on TV yesterday to address the nation on this tragedy. Networks broke in and Americans were glued to our TV sets.
And Obama started by giving a “shout out” to a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who never won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
His unpresidential ramblings were all over the place.
We wonder if Michael Moore filmed this travesty of a leader and will use it in an uncoming film?
A “shout out”? Is he the President of the United States and the military’s Commander in Chief or is he Arsenio Hall whooping it up with the crowd?
Hey at least Obama mentioned it. That’s an improvement.
I remember shortly after Tiller the baby killer was murdered Obama held a press conference about the tragedy.
A day later a military recruiter was gunned down on the job and Obama never mentioned it.
So I’ll commend him on his improvements.
The only reason Bush would have been in Texas already was because he spent most of his time there at his ranch on vacation. People and there revisionist history…good grief.
No intention to insult the politically correct crowd, but why has the man who loves to fly around in air force 1 not flown down to visit those wounded soldiers? Was the Chicago Olympics or date night to New York more important? Don’t understand??? Betcha President Bush would have already been on site by now.
Right. We should not rush to judgement before we know the entire story….the same way Obama didn’t rush to judgement on that Harvard police officer.
Hours before the identity of the shooter was revealed, network commentators were manically saying ‘this is not a terror act!‘. How did they know? They sure took pains to triplecheck on the identity of the shooter before his name was released. They were the soul of caution on the latter count, but not the former. Now, we know the man identified himself as a Palestinian first and American second. We know he shouted ‘God is Great’ in Arabic as he opened fire. We know he had deep reservations about deployment to a war zone, but had no qualms about shooting unarmed people in cold blood. Since the media was eager to tell us what conclusions to jump to yesterday, maybe they’ll enlighten us as to what conclusions we are expected to reach today.
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