It's About Time: Fort Hood Victims Finally Get Purple Hearts

What took them so long? Don’t answer that question, because we all know:

Army Secretary John McHugh has approved the awarding of the Purple Heart to the military victims of the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead, the Army announced Friday. The civilian counterpart of the Purple Heart award – the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom – will be conferred on the civilian victims of the shooting.

McHugh was freed to extend the awards after Congress recently broadened the guidelines specifying who is eligible to receive them. The Purple Heart can be awarded to military members who suffer combat injuries, including injuries suffered at the hands of a foreign terrorist organization. As part of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, Congress redefined an attack by a “foreign terrorist organization” to include any attack in which the perpetrator was in communication with or inspired by foreign terrorist elements before the attack. The previous criteria required evidence that the perpetrator was acting at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization.

One good thing about the recent GOP takeover of Congress:

The army concluded that there was sufficient evidence indicating Major Nidal Hassan, who was responsible for the shooting at Fort Hood, was in communication with foreign terrorists before the attack, and that their ideology inspired him to carry out his murderous spree. As a result, the victims of Hassan’s attack were deemed eligible to receive a Purple Heart.

“The Purple Heart’s strict eligibility criteria had prevented us from awarding it to victims of the horrific attack at Fort Hood,” McHugh explained in a press release. “Now that Congress has changed the criteria, we believe there is sufficient reason to allow these men and women to be awarded and recognized with either the Purple Heart or, in the case of civilians, the Defense of Freedom medal. It’s an appropriate recognition of their service and sacrifice.”

One step at time, rolling back the Islamic attempted conquest of America. More, and faster, please.