The report issued earlier this month by the Department of Defense blue-ribbon panel tasked with assessing the November 5, 2009 mass shooting at Ft. Hood, is — or ought to be – an embarrassment to our government. If this report is used as the basis for developing policies and programs to prevent future such incidents, then we’ve failed before we’ve even begun.

The first thing that strikes the reader of this report is the cover itself; which, in a sense, says it all. The cover does not depict a military scenario that might illustrate a military response to an armed threat against a military installation or personnel. Nor is it a straight-forward, official-looking report cover as found on most government documents.

It is instead a touchy-feely picture of two hands grasping each other’s wrists, vaguely similar to the stylized logo depicting two clasped hands used by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. We “protect the force” against a crazed mass murderer by joining hands and singing “Kumbaya” seems to be the message. The actual contents of the report bear out this initial impression.

It has been well-publicized already that the report fails to directly address the fact that Maj. Hassan obviously and demonstrably was a radicalizedMuslim. Yet, in a classic example of military gobbledygook, the report does address the issue of religion, but in a context that has nothing whatever to do with the problem at hand. Page 44 offers the following “finding”: “The lack of published guidance for religious support in mass casualty incidents hampers integration of religious support to installation emergency management plans.”

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Aquila Report.