The jihadist who slaughtered 13 Americans at Fort Hood in 2009 will be executed by U.S. Army firing squad — the first military execution by that method since World War II — after President Trump approved the recommendation of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

For the families of the dead and the 32 wounded, this is justice delayed by more than a decade and a half of institutional cowardice. The Obama Pentagon famously classified Hasan's rampage as "workplace violence," denying the victims Purple Hearts and combat-related benefits until Congress forced the issue in 2015. The message from Washington then: a self-declared holy warrior gunning down soldiers while screaming "Allahu Akbar" was just a disgruntled employee. That disgrace ends now.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision Monday on X: "Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has recommended — and President Donald J. Trump has approved — death by U.S. Army firing squad for convicted terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan, the jihadist who opened fire on unarmed American soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009." Parnell added that Hasan was "shouting 'Allahu Akbar' during the attack."

Hegseth posted one word: "Justice."

Hasan, a former Army major and psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, opened fire on troops waiting in line for immunizations at the Texas base on November 5, 2009. Twelve of the dead were service members; one was a civilian. A civilian police officer shot Hasan in the back, leaving him partially paralyzed and ending the attack.

At his 2013 court-martial, Hasan conducted his own defense, called no witnesses, and made no attempt to deny the charges. He told the military judge he was defending "the leadership of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban." The Guardian reported that Hasan had communicated online with Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaida propagandist later killed in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. A jury panel of 13 officers unanimously recommended death on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.

Even from death row, Hasan kept cheering. The New York Post reported that in 2021, as the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan collapsed into chaos, Hasan wrote a letter proclaiming: "We Have Won!!!" and praying the Taliban would "implement Shariah Law fully, correctly, and fairly."

The BBC and Guardian both covered the execution approval but notably omitted Hasan's battle cry of "Allahu Akbar" and his Taliban victory letter — details that lay bare the nature of the attack as an act of war, not a workplace incident. The Guardian described Hasan simply as "opposed to the US military's occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan."

The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place. In February, Army officials reportedly circulated a plan called "Operation Resolute Justice" to transfer Hasan and the military's three other death-row inmates to a federal facility in Indiana for execution, according to ABC News via the Post.

The question that lingers isn't whether Hasan deserves to die — by his own admission, he does. It's why it took 17 years, a new president, and a new Pentagon to treat an act of jihadist terror as exactly that.