President Obama donned his commander-in-chief's hat for this morning's weekly address, somberly discussing Thursday's tragedy at Fort Hood and tying it into next week's observance of Veterans Day.

Promising that the FBI is looking into the motivation behind the rampage, the president reiterated that flags will be lowered to half mast from now until next week's holiday in order to honor the wounded, the dead and the grieving families at the military base.

The president reflected upon the unexpectedness of the crime in this specific setting, a setting that made the loss of life particularly stunning:

It is an act of violence that would have been heartbreaking had it occurred anyplace in America. It is a crime that would have horrified us had its victims been Americans of any background. But it’s all the more heartbreaking and all the more despicable because of the place where it occurred and the patriots who were its victims.

The SRP is where our men and women in uniform go before getting deployed. It’s where they get their teeth checked and their medica