American President Barack Obama urged Americans on Friday not to jump to conclusions on the motive behind the mass shooting at the sprawling Fort Hood army base in Texas.
The U.S. military has earlier ordered bases across the country to tighten security after the shooting rampage which left 13 dead and 30 others wounded.
"We don't know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts," he said.
Obama also said he had met on Friday with officials including FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Stepping up security
We don't know all the answers yet and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts
While security policies varied from base to base, "each installation was asked to look at those specific force protection procedures and they are doing that," U.S. General Kevin Bergner told reporters.
He said any major change in security would have to await the outcome of the criminal investigation into Thursday's shooting.
An army psychiatrist opened fire with two handguns at the Fort Hood Army post late on Thursday, killing 13 and wounding 31 others, Army officials said, adding the suspect was shot several times but survived.
Authorities identified the suspected gunman as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had treated soldiers wounded in foreign wars preparing for foreign deployment at the post.
The shooter was born in the United States to Palestinian parents who had moved from a small town near Jerusalem.
"Our investigation is ongoing but preliminary reports indicate that there was a single shooter," Lieutenant-General Robert Cone, Fort Hood's commanding officer, told a news conference. "The shooter is not dead but in custody in stable condition."
The lethal shooting has dealt a blow to an American military already under severe strain from years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan and plagued by a rise in suicides.
The rampage occurred at a time of stress for the armed services burdened by two wars, with commanders struggling to ease the effect of repeated combat tours on troops and their families.
Army suicides hit a record level last year, with at least 128 taking their own lives, and are on track to set a new high this year—surpassing the rate among the wider civilian population.
U.S. commanders believe repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have played a role in the spike in suicides, as well as a surge in post-traumatic stress and depression.
Post-traumatic stress
These are not phantom issues made up by weak soldiers. They are as real as if you fell and broke your leg or lost an arm
General Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, has called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—a painful mixture of anxiety and depression—one of the "signature wounds of the war," and appealed to commanders to take it seriously.
"I want to change the stigma linked to these wounds," Chiarelli said of PTSD and traumatic brain injury.
"These are not phantom issues made up by weak soldiers. They are as real as if you fell and broke your leg or lost an arm," he told an audience last month.
Cases of both post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury have grown from 38 percent to 58 percent since August 2008 among soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Army.
And about 30 percent of soldiers deployed will likely have some form of post-traumatic stress, Chiarelli said.
The top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, speaks often of his concern over suicide and post-traumatic stress, saying the Pentagon is still working to understand how to cope with the problem.
Mullen said Wednesday that he has heard soldiers are often reluctant to report their symptoms and ask for help, fearing it could damage their careers.
"So we've just got to break that down and make it acceptable to ask for help in what is, by and large, something that is a temporary condition that, again, if it's addressed quickly, its effects can be greatly minimized," he said.
At events at army bases, spouses sometimes speak with anger and an air of desperation, telling officials their loved ones are preparing for their fifth or sixth successive combat tour and have little time at home before their training resumes and another deployment begins.
Retired officers had warned that the army was at breaking point after a "surge" of U.S. forces into Iraq in 2007. But commanders believe they have begun easing the strain -- increasing the time soldiers spend at home between tours.
The mission in Afghanistan, now into its ninth year, and the Iraq war have left political scars on the wider society as well, causing bitter divisions among Americans over the country's place in the world.
The controversial wars may have even played a role in the mind of the shooter, according to one colleague of Hasan, the suspected gunman.
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