Washington- The gunning-down of fellow soldiers allegedly by an army psychiatrist at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base was both heartbreaking and despicable, US President Barack Obama said during his weekly address Saturday. "It is an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America," he said. "It is a crime that would have horrified us had its victims been Americans of any background.
"But it's all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims."
The shooting rampage Thursday, allegedly by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, left 13 dead and 30 wounded. It took place at the base's centre where soldiers prepare for deployment overseas.
"It was in this place, on a base where our soldiers ought to feel most safe, where those brave Americans who are preparing to risk their lives in defence of our nation lost their lives in a crime against our nation," Obama said.
The president said soldiers stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world were getting in touch with family and friends at Fort Hood "all expressing the same stunned reaction: I'm supposed to be the one in harm's way, not you."
While the shooting was devastating, Obama said the United States also saw the "valour, selflessness and unity of purpose that make ... the United States military the best the world has ever known."
"We saw soldiers and civilians alike rushing to aid fallen comrades, tearing off bullet-riddled clothes to treat the injured, using blouses as tourniquets, taking down the shooter even as they bore wounds themselves," he said.
Fort Hood, which lies about 95 kilometres north of the Texan capital of Austin, houses several units that have been deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 40,000 soldiers and their families live on the base.
