Fratricide - Wrong Term

Much has been said and written about Maj. Hasan Nidal, the military psychologist who murdered 13 soldiers and wounded dozens more at Fort Hood last November. Even more so, questions have arisen as to when the miltary knew about Hasan's mental instability, his ties to radical Islam, and his disdain for the military, and why no one did anything to confront him. However, even more astounding than this is why when military officials knew of problems with Hasan did they not confront the issue, rather, they promoted him?

From a sociofeminist perspective, I would go one step further, why does the military continue to use the term fratricide when describing the horrific attacks committed by Hasan? The correct term should be honor killing, or customary killing. This term refers to killing a family member, and is much more gender nuetral than fratricide.

Now I know the argument seems petty, but what I am trying to establish is the continued sexual discrimination by the military to not recognize the strong roles of women in the military, let alone, recognizing the slain female soldiers. I also believe that the military continues to disrespect those female soldiers killed by Hasan by not using the correct term. Why, may you ask?

Fratricide is a latin term used when one kills a brother. Frat meaning "brother," and cide meaning "kill." Sororicide is the term used to describe killing one's sister. Now I do not propose using sororicide over the previous term; I am merely saying, for the sake of political correctness, that we use the term honor killing, or customary killing, to describe Hasan's atrocious attacks. In the end, I believe both male and female soldiers would be honored and memorialized by being referred to as a family.