Execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad, but don't make it must-see-TV
- Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter who killed 13 in 2009, is set to face a firing squad on Dec. 3 — the first public U.S. execution since 1936.
- Secretary of War Pete Hegseth picked the date, time, and weapons to mirror Hasan’s original attack, with President Trump’s sign-off.
- The big controversy: a Pentagon livestream. GOP leaders like Mike Johnson and John Kennedy say they won’t watch, calling it 'coarse' and martyr-making.
- Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin brushes off martyrdom fears, arguing the spectacle is a deterrent: 'If you attack America, we will come after you.'
- Trump hasn’t decided on airing it, but civil libertarians and GOP skeptics worry the broadcast turns a killer into a hero and America into a medieval spectacle.
Brief Summary
In a move straight out of a dystopian thriller, the U.S. government is dusting off the firing squad for Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who turned Fort Hood into a shooting gallery back in 2009. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, with a flair for the dramatic, has scheduled the execution for Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. CT, mirroring the exact time and date of the attack, and he’s pushing for a livestream because nothing says 'justice' like a snuff film with government branding. Polls show 66% of Americans back capital punishment, but the real debate isn’t whether Hasan dies — it’s whether we should broadcast his demise to a global audience, complete with his expected 'Allahu Akbar' finale. GOP leaders are split like a bad divorce: DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sees it as a deterrent for would-be terrorists, while Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. John Kennedy are covering their eyes, calling it 'coarse' and warning it could turn a self-proclaimed soldier of Islam into a martyr. Trump is playing Hamlet, weighing the optics of showing it versus not, while critics point out we’re teetering on the edge of mimicking the very ISIS-style propaganda we once condemned.
Why This Matters
This is your tax dollars at work, folks: the government deciding whether to turn a high-profile execution into must-see TV. On one hand, a firing squad is brutally efficient — no botched lethal injections like that Tennessee mess where the condemned woman woke up and started walking, because apparently even death is optional now. On the other, livestreaming Hasan’s last moments risks giving a guy who screamed 'Allahu Akbar' while murdering U.S. troops the global platform he always wanted. You might not care about the death penalty debate, but you should care that your government is flirting with spectacle — it sets a precedent that public shaming and execution-by-stream are acceptable tools of justice, which is a slippery slope to a very dark place. Politically, it’s a trap for Trump: show it, and he looks like a barbarian; hide it, and he looks soft on terror. Either way, you lose, because the real message to enemies isn’t 'we’ll execute you' — it’s 'we’ll argue about your execution on cable news for a week.' So grab your popcorn or your smelling salts; Dec. 3 is going to be a circus, and Hasan, dead or alive, has already won the propaganda war just by existing.