Nidal Hasan got a close shave this week, courtesy of the U.S. Army.

This wasn’t your ordinary grooming. Hasan is now getting set to serve a prison term while awaiting a death sentence for killing 13 people in that horrific massacre Nov. 5, 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan also was a psychiatrist and was a commissioned officer in the Army.

Then he decided he didn’t want to report for duty in Afghanistan. Why? Because he opposed our military activities in that nation. Hasan, a devout Muslim, took matters into his own hands and committed a horrendous capital crime. He was court-martialed, convicted and sentenced to die.

But along the way, Major Hasan had refused the Army’s orders to shave his beard. He claimed he was entitled to grow the facial hair in observance of his religion.

That, of course, is an absolute pile of crap. He was entitled to nothing of the kind.

Hasan took an oath when he enlisted in the Army to obey lawful orders. One of them was that he couldn’t have facial hair. He defied the government he was serving by growing the beard.

Back in the old days, such as when I served in the very same Army as Nidal Hasan, such insubordination would result in what we used to call “dry shaving,” meaning that our sergeants could hold us down and shave our faces without shaving cream or even water.

Well, the major is now locked up. He’ll never be free again. The Army took matters into his own hands by shaving his face clean of the facial hair.

Religious freedom? Forget about it. He’s still in the Army and was ordered to shave his face. As he’s known all along, the U.S. Army isn’t a democratic institution. That’s why they call those directives “orders.”