Shortly after the shootings yesterday, cable news anchors began to report that the suspect had a “had a Muslim sounding name”. I immediately felt a sense of dread not only for those killed and wounded or the possibility that this assault was an organized terrorist act, but also for all of the Muslim Americans who might find themselves having to defend their allegiance to America due to the act of one man. One man who was clearly troubled.

The latest news is that Major Nidal Malik Hasan yelled “Allahu Akbar” as he began his Fort Hood shooting rampage. Some will assert that it’s a commitment to “political correctness” that makes our military less safe. Others will downplay emerging evidence that Hasan in fact harbored a political (religious?) motivation for his crimes. What I don’t want lost in this tug of ideas is the fact that while Nidal Malik Hasan was clearly disgruntled and may have demonstrated sympathy with jihadists, Hasan also displayed clear signs of extreme stress, perhaps mental illness. Even if Nidal Malik Hasan was motivated by politics, he showed warning signs of snapping and he did not get the mental health care intervention that may have altered the course of yesterday’s events.

I know there is no excuse or rationalizing yesterday’s events. Major Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is likely to have murdered 13 and wounded 30 in his own military community. My deepest prayers are with the victims, their families and the entire community of America’s largest military base. As President Obama said, “It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an Army base on American soil.”

But most soldiers don’t stay on American soil. They are deployed to defend our nation, to go and fight and kill other people. War is messy, bloody business and there are many costs to it. The heart, spirit and mind bear the most hidden wounds and scars of warfare. And although this time an Army psychiatrist responsible for helping so many back into society cracked, Fort Hood has serious problems treating the mental health needs of its community.

Since the start of the Afghan war in 2001, the base has lost hundreds of soldiers in combat. More alarmingly to many senior commanders there, the base has also lost at least 75 of its soldiers to suicide, one of the heaviest such tolls in the U.S. military. Source: Base Hit by Stress Disorder, Suicides, WSJ.com

So let us honor the victims of the Fort Hood rampage, by pushing to make sure that each and every member of the armed services, and their families, get all the mental health care they need to live full lives.

READ MORE: Fort Hood Shooting: What’s Religion got to Do With it?