It’s late, and I’m tired and enduringly appalled – not to mention outraged – by the vicious murders committed upon US soldiers by a man whose paid work it was to care for them. It may not help that I’m fortified by an evening’s dose of Hendricks and tonic, with just a slice of cucumber in it, as is the custom.
Color it truth serum.
But it’s this profile in Bloomberg that set me off:
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas, regularly described the war on terror as “a war against Islam,” according to a doctor who was in a graduate program with him.
To the extent that radical Islamic terrorists constitute a murderous threat to innocent Americans, Hasan had it exactly right. To the extent that the vast majority of Muslims want only to live their lives in peace, pay their taxes, send their kids to college and mow their lawns he had it exactly wrong. It’s a little more than ironic that Hasan became that which he believed others took him for – a weak dick coward more willing to gun down unarmed American soldiers than care for them in a combat zone.
Perhaps if Hasan had been willing to sacrifice his principles just a smidge and marry a nice Muslim girl who would be happy enough to raise his children for him but didn’t want to sit in the back room under a burkha like chattel, he’d have found more reasons for living than killing. Perhaps.
Of course, finding that perfect woman would have eventually resulted in having to, you know: Get dirty with the fiddly bits. With a woman.
Far better to stew in your resentments.
While studying for a masters degree in public health in 2007, Hasan used a presentation for an environmental health class to argue that Muslims were being targeted by the U.S. anti-terror campaign, said Val Finnell, a classmate.
Not all of them. Just the ones who had been coddled by the tax payers through their master’s and doctoral level educations and payed that kindness back by going on shooting sprees against unarmed innocents.
“He was very vocal about the war, very upfront about being a Muslim first and an American second,” said Finnell, 41, a preventive medicine doctor in Los Angeles, in an interview today. “He was always concerned that Muslims in the military were being persecuted.”
I’d say the major found what he was looking for, and in doing so, became what other people had reasonably feared: A Muslim first, and an American second. That’s going to be a problem in the US Army, especially if the one believing it also holds the notion that the war on terror is a war against his faith.
Hasan, 39, opened fire on fellow soldiers with two handguns at the Fort Hood Army Base yesterday before he was shot several times, Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the base commander, told reporters. Military officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are probing what triggered the attack by the physician at a crowded medical processing center on the base.
Hmm. What could it have been? An inflated sense of aggrieved self-worth enabled by a toxic strain of a faith that teaches humility before God – fair enough, as far as it goes – but also an inherited right to supremacy above those who do not share that faith?
I’m just spit-balling here. Don’t want to “jump to conclusions.”
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, said she was told by Fort Hood authorities the suspect was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and had been “very upset and angry” in the past few days.
Because serving one’s country in a time of war might mean, you know: Hardship.
Weak. Dick.
Licensed Physician
The Virginia Board of Medicine lists Hasan as a licensed physician. He received his medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2003. He completed a residency in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington in 2007 and a fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry in 2009.
Hasan was getting his masters degree in public health in 2007 and 2008 at the Uniformed Services University as part of his fellowship, said Bill Bester, vice president for external affairs at the school. Bester said he was unaware of comments Hasan may have made during the program.
Finnell said he remembered Hasan “vividly” and said of the shooting: “I’m not surprised, based on the things he said in the past. I’m shocked that it happened, but not surprised.”
In conversations, students challenged Hasan on his statements and he would become “visibly upset, sweaty, nervous,” Finnell said.
Because not everyone accepted his magisterial superiority, the sublime perfection that was Hasan!
The picture that emerges is not one of a persecuted minority, but a man with a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder. If you can’t win the argument of your self-proclaimed superiority on merits, gun some people down. Unarmed people, of a preference.
That’ll show ‘em.
Toward the end of the program, in 2008, Hasan gave a presentation that was billed as a survey of the climate for Muslims who serve in the U.S. military, Finnell said.
“It wasn’t really very objective,” Finnell said. “It was like he was trying to prove a point.”
Which was essentially impossible: Not everyone was willing to concede to Mr. Weak Dick Wannabe Terrorist Guy how perfectly wonderful and superior he was.
It’s not that most or even many Muslims want to cut infidel throats, for if they did it wouldn’t be a question of if or whether and we’d be at it hammer and tongs with the outcome not in doubt. The problem is that there is found within the Koran – the perfect, unalterable wisdom of a single, charismatic man as given to him by “God” – sufficient reason to do so, if you go looking hard enough. Which, for weak dick nutters, is all too easy to do.
We’ve loonies of our own in Christendom and too many have had the opportunity over the last two millenia to prove the fallen nature of man. But their crimes and misdemeanors are granted no borderline personality waivers by the Prince of Peace. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” was not footnoted, nor was it asterisked.
At the end of the day it comes down to this: Our guy died for us.
Theirs killed for them.
Cucumber?
Must be a left coast thing. LOL
It’s only a slice. Every decent man wants to cut off a slice from time to time.
yeah, but cucumber? must be aviator specific.
No Curtis, I PROMISE it is not. I think the boss got it right – sounds very left.
Yez need to gits yerselves edumacted on the finer things in life, ye proles.
Guys, get with it. He gets to eat the “loaded” cuke slice at the bottom to complete the buzz.
Well, OK, if you say so but the very first definition of an alchi is, “one who eats the veggies in the glass the alcohol was served in.”
Just saying.
WOW!
Stumbled upon Hendricks after reading your post and picked up a bottle.
50/50 in a tall glass with 2 slices of peeled cuke……
It is an entirely different G&T than I have ever had.
I am afraid my Sapphire is in danger of being replaced.
What a refreshing drink!
as W. C Fields said, “…and stumbled on thereafter.”
you’ve been watching…..?
Who are the cowards that let this jerk enter the USUHS, graduate, be licensed as a M.D., commissioned as an officer, work with soldiers, pass his graduate programs, be promoted, and transferred and scheduled for deployment? Were they blind or stupid or just cowards?
Lots of folks have already stated the guy was a loony, but NO ONE DID ANYTHING! This is Kitty Genovese level of tragedy [a long ago incident where a woman was murdered in New York while numerous neighbors and passers by observed and did nothing to stop the killer or even call the cops].
I believe that we have been so worn down by the PC police, and the incessant charges of racism any time any criminal (who happens to be non-WASP)is called out that no one will any longer dare say anything.
Enough with the defenders of “the religion of peace.” Those who are peaceful are welcome amongst us. Those who show the slightest tendency otherwise are not welcome and must be watched, and we must be ever vigilant to defend against them at the slightest provocation. Not after 13 are dead and scores wounded, but at the first sign.
Hasan is an evil piece of scum (allegedly, of course) but those who did nothing or said nothing bear an unshakable burden as well.
Hope he recovers swiftly for a speedy trial and execution.
The Crusades beat back the Islamic hordes from their high water marks in Spain and at the gates of Vienna. We must never let them get that far again. We did not start the fight with Islam, but we must never let them win. Whatever the cost!
You know, what scares me is not the percentage of Muslims engaged in Jihad against the west. One of the fallback arguments of the multi-culti PC crowd, that number in percent terms is always so small as to seem completely innocuous. Despite what that tiny percentage has visibly been able to actually achieve in destruction wrought. But what gets me are the percentages of muslims who want Sharia in their western homelands. The percentage of muslims who, while not committing terrorist Jihad themselves, APPROVE of it. The percentage of muslims who think the destruction of Israel is a legitimate objective. The percentage of muslims who consider Osama Bin Laden a hero. None of these are majorities so far as I know, but usually the percentages are solidly in the double digits. And with 1.5 billion muslims in the world, that makes for a LOT of people with views that can not be coexisted with. The tiny few that commit the actual jihadist act can only do so with the tacit non-interference of their brethren, or even the encouragement and indirect financial assistance through “charitable” donations of the significant minority above. If only .0045%, or whatever the calculation is today, of muslims really wanted to use terrorism as the weapon of the weak against the “strong” (militarily speaking, most terrorists think we’re weak spirited and willed and that’s why they think they can win) and the other 99.9999% were perfectly law abiding good citizens who would turn in a terrorist if they saw one and voiceferously denounce any act committed, we wouldn’t be facing a whole set of major worldwide problems with Islam as the only connecting thread.
PAMDO, thank you, that was a point I wanted to make on another thread to Casey. Perhaps he’ll read it here, nicely stated.
Point One: the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.
Point Two: The major was noted in the two weeks or so leading up to this atrocity to be wearing the traditional clothes of a martyr, at all times when off duty. he was also, during that same period, noted to be giving away his personal possessions and copies of the Koran.
Point Three: The Diversity Police have removed the spines of officers in charge and replaced them with.. what? Perhaps we should rename Diversity officers with something more appropriate. Zampolit comes to my mind.
There may well be “moderate muslims” out there. To date, I have yet to encounter any. I’m fully in favour of rounding all of them up and placing them in camps until we can properly vet them. If we can ever properly vet them.
That’s as mild ly and pleasantly as I can phrase my thoughts this afternoon.
God bless those who lost their lives, those who were wounded, and all of their families.
My the Gods forever damn all of those who found solace or rejoiced in this atrocity.
I can’t remember who said this but it is true: “A moderate Muslim is one who wants to kill only Jews.”
I can see that a potent combination of exotic libations (and I thought *I* has a corner on that
) has Lex in his cups tonight and losing some of his fabled sangfroid–dwelling as many of us are on this miserable state of affairs. He has lots of company, of that I am sure–or at the very least one in the particular case of this little Indian. A sorry state of affairs indeed and well past the time to be politely diplomatic.
In my case I don’t know who I despise the most–Hasan or the “weak-dick” PC weasels within our own camp–both those in the MSM who seek to ignore or paper over the Islamic implications and those PC cowards in the service which were afraid to connect the dots for fear of terminated careers. And I despise EVEN MORE those multi-culti PC weasels in the command structure who supinely worship at the alter of “diversity,” and whom we all know would have unhesitatingly moved to cut the throats and end the careers of anyone with the temerity to attempt to connect the dots in Hasan’s case prior to the inevitable. And even more disgusting in the contemplation is the thought of the cya armed services white-wash that we all know is coming. The mere thought of which is sickening enough to make even a Jackal wretch and drive good men like Lex and lesser mortals such as I to seek comfort in the company of the likes of the good Mr. Hendricks and Monsieur Barbancourt.
Virgil,
As a 30-year soldier it pains me to say this, but it may well be that the Army has beaten the Naval Academy to the punch with the “our goal is diversity” or whatever the catch phrase was that was the topic of several of our host’s recent commentaries.
Sad, just sad.
My thoughts many times since the news broke yesterday (@ the ‘Manders and this in the MSM).
“…I don’t know who I despise the most–Hasan or the “weak-dick” PC weasels within our own camp…”
Please let me help, VX. Despise the latter, for without their enabling, Hasan would never have had an opportunity. IIRC, Dante reserved the lowest circle of Hell for the likes of them.
Virulent anti-American. Rabid American hater.
Not so different from loonies that blindly follow Sharpton and Jackson or who follow Code Pink or who write for the NYT or Kos. I don’t want to challenge their manhood since God knows I don’t need any more of these pussies to pick up a gun and prove their manhood by shooting pregnant women or Jewish children or unarmed youngsters. Muslims like their victims unarmed and alone but they’ll plan to pull off a 9/11 or a Beslan. Their men, if that’s what they are, reach their peak when they kill their own little girls. Obnoxious, disgusting, repellent and cowardly are the traits of these muslim warriors in the west.
I’d still prefer that they move to caves in Afghanistan, grow beards, eat rats and die by cluster bomb and napalm like real muslim men.
Curtis,
Perhaps the response to your query, “Their men, if that’s what they are . . . .” would be to say that we will never confuse a male muslim with a man — they have been shown to be two entirely different things. For all the reasons you list.
But…The WON said, about a week ago, that it’s the Republicans who blindly follow and do as they are told.
The world turned upside down.
This is a terrorist attack on our country, just as 911. The lamestream media are treating it as anything but. Those at Walter Reed who know what this guy was like and pawned him off onto Ft Hood instead of cashiering him should themselves be cashiered. This political correctness trash must be stopped. There are too many protected classes that are not being made responsible for their actions, individually and as groups.
When the SOB is in his last moments on earth I hope someone has the presence of mind to put a pork chop in his mouth for long enough to know it is there and what it is.
Amen to the blog & Amen to the comments!! Lex, I particularly liked your last two sentences.
American Power tracked-back with, ‘NON-Glue Sniffers of the World, Unite!’.
+1 million Lex. Head of nail has been struck dead center.
hmm, distilled in Ayrshire. Mum was born in Beth. Might have to give it a try — see if i’m any more eloquent under it’s spell.
Well, i just know that the only real result of this in the uniformed services will be more “diversity” classes that we’ll all have to attend. The fact is, as has been mentioned above, anyone who had tried to take action to end this weak-dick’s career would, instead, have had theirs ended.
Personally, i really don’t plan to stay quiet in these sensitivity classes anymore. I will call BS for what it is. So what if that means i never make Chief.
In those classes do you have a cup with your name on it yet? Did they paint your name on a chair?
You could always beg off saying you’ve been working so very hard to de-sensitize yourself. Naa, they’d never accept it.
I’m beyond that now myself but I did spend the last 3 years attending all the mandatory all hands training as did my commodore and CSO. I may have missed one or two sessions due to previously scheduled TELCONs but if I was in the building, I could be found with my staff in training. In 3 years I never went through any sort of indoc or nonsense at these all-hands events. There were a couple of annual events from the staff JAG. She just wanted to impart the Privacy Act and Fairness to us. The rest was mostly about the long weekends and the safety that should be considered and the downsides to being discovered driving under the influence. We usually had one of our reserve Sr Chiefs (cops in the local law enforcement network) come in and give us the skinny on how things progressed after one is busted for driving under the influence.
We never in my 3 years did a “how to love your muslim terrorist neighbors”, or “diversity is your friend”, or “how to get along with practically any terrorist who wants to kill you.” Our subordinate squadrons may have but I strongly doubt it. Most of us are on a first name basis with the inhabitants of the Middle East. We all hate and despise the devout muslims and wish them a fiery death. Oddly enough, our friends from the Middle East also wish those bastards fiery deaths.
Faced with a guy who is a problem–and a marginal performer–the tendency in any bureacracy is to “shine ‘em up and ship ‘em out”.
So I can see how a career type in what might charitably be viewed as a “non critical” branch of the military (i.e. pyschiatry) would tolerate the crapola coming from Hassan. Easier to turn a blind eye and move him along. But if the individual is going to lead men and women in combat, that absolutely should not be done–it is a failure of leadership. Folks can understand that.
But even a good leader, such as our genial host, who will not tolerate hazing of any kind among the enlisted men under his command, may be given pause by the PC pashas when it comes to “discriminating” against a Muslim–female-homsexual or whatever protected class is involved.
The world has a nasty way of coming back and biting you–or worse yet–someone else– in the ass when you fail to make the right decisions.
And as the Hendricks? If you’ve not tried it, it has a distinct cucumber taste. A splash of tonic, no ice, a slice of cucumber and three fingers of Hendricks–and you’ve got a drink fit for an Indian Air Force grandee!
Which brings up a point for the just recently passed DoD budget:
If he makes it back to “life,” will he be charged with a “hate crime?” It sure sounds like he was after those his god says to hate and kill. Unless I’m a complete moron (please, that’s a rhetorical comment!) it sounds like he falls under the new “rules” for extra special punishment.
This could be interesting, or it could just be swept under the rug, because, you know, some haters are more equal than others….
Mike Meyers/
Re: Hendricks. Yeah, I didn’t know Lex had a handle-bar mustache and wore a Turban!
Dang. I needs me some of this elixir. Which prolly won’t have any effect on me, though.
Well said, as ever, Lex. That goes for the ever-thoughtful commentariat, too.
Oh, I do so fervently hope Hasan recovers. How I hope so. Only so he can be interrogated, tried under the UCMJ, and stood up before a firing squad.
But before they fire, have a hog butchered, and dip each round to be put in this SOB in that pig’s blood.
“Allah Akbar” indeed. And, Tim, you may have a point. Camping and vetting.
Jim/
That’s the OTHER thing driving me to drink. Did you hear the rpt that the Obamaoids are SERIOUSLY debating whether or not to try the guy in CIVILIAN courts!!?? Was ONLY the actions of a serving officer on active duty smack dab in the middle of the largest military reservation in the Army while in uniform, that’s all. TOTAL bat-shit insane craziness.
Yup, love thy neighbor as thy self. Who is thy neighbor? Why, that stranger asshole over there, as the Parable of the Samaritan points out. Maj. Hasan was very un-neighborly, and actually a very bad neighbor. Extremely so.
Spot on, Lex. So accurate, I see a server spike by tomorrow morning.
I apologize in advance to any readers who seek no ill will, while still being enlightened by the Host.
It’s time to dispense with the PC Police, abject liberal notions, and the “save every disadvantaged tadpole in the delta” agendas. We need to recognize we are at war with Islamic extremism everywhere we meet them.
We must stop looking at these issues through Western, Christian ideals, but rather adopt our Enemy’s vision for a moment.
Most will realize we are being played the fool.
Enough is enough, American Patriots are dying. It is time to eliminate the menace.
Darwin’s theory of natural selection, personified for the 21st Century. Better that cave dwelling Mullahs be horrifically dispatched, than our own children.
Lex, I still think you’ve got some apples in with those oranges, but it’s not to quibble over. Whether or not one judges belief in Mohammad’s prattle to be a disqualifier for military service, it was abundantly clear that Hasan needed to be disqualified, and shame on the military that hung on to him for either reason–need to be PC or need to make doctors.
For a while I worked in a building where all us geeky intel types had our 9mm on the desktop beside us, usually safety off with a round in the chamber. One of us had real problems taking direction from the senior, growing increasingly isolated and angry, and had taken to cleaning his own weapon after being ass-chewed, sliding the rack loudly back and forth. It got our attention. He needed to be disqualified, and disappeared over a cycle of darkness (only to re-emerge re-assigned to my HQ in the rear, unbeknownst to his own parent command–I made the calls to my bosses and he got physically escorted to a plane and out of country).
Hasan needed to be disqualified.
If any good can come of this tragedy it will be enough people in this country getting as angry as our host and demanding an end to this PC bullshit that has reached the level of inane babble. Our host, and rightly I’d say, recently gently admonished a poster for referring to a position taken by another here as evidence of being “mindless”. In that case it could be inferred as a personal attack of a defensible difference of opinion. In this case, and all the other cases, this PC bullshit is a mindless exercise in refusing to confront the reality that threatens us.
It is time for widespread discrimination. Discrimination against those who are willing to state through their actions and words that they are “fill in the blank” first and American second. I’d suggest starting with Muslim in the blank as the evidence has shown time and again that their numbers, however small in overall percentage of the subject population, represent a force for evil we ignore at our own peril.
We discriminate daily in our selections for promotion, whether in the military or who gets to start as quarterback on the little league team on Saturday. It’s time to discriminate against those who openly express hatred for our way of life simply because of their religious or cultural background. We may not throw them out of the country but we sure as hell can throw them out of our military, our government, our polite society.
To not do so seem mindless to me as the results of not doing so have left those who worship at the altar of diversity and PC with blood on their hands.
I’ll take mine with a lime please, cucumbers are for salads.
[...] the gloves came off. He does a far better job than I could, even if I had the patience for it so click on over if you haven’t [...]
In today’s PC Army, you just can’t put a substandard Soldier out. It’s viewed as a “command failure”. Officer or enlisted, it doesn’t matter. I’ve had soldiers (small s) do 4 years without ever passing an APFT or making weight. The command is afraid to put them out. I have a CPT in my command that has f**ked up in ways that would put a PFC in jail, yet he was promoted. And continues to screw the pooch. Wake up, Army. We have a standard and those that don’t meet it need to go. This was a preventable tragedy. Putting out a substandard Soldier is not a command failure. Keeping them until they commit a heinous crime is. End of rant.
Sorry dude,
In my earliest days with the fleet we had bottom blow and could drop kick anybody out for the convenience of the navy.
In my hater days on the DD I watched as the ship drop kicked 55 sailors, 2 officers and a chief out of the navy.
My last ships, the fun ones, had one sailor who had appeared at mast 14 times. I think the skipper kept him around purely for the amusement that was in it.
My last command I signed an MPO against an LCDR and when she violated that order the command took her to mast, which she declined which meant she went to GCM. After being found guilty she was sentenced to the brig and drop kicked out before she got her 20.
If you want to strike a pose, please don’t do it on the inability of the military to get rid of dirtbags. If your leadership lacks the balls to do what is necessary you need to say so. That hotline to your IG or Senator is only how far away from you……?
Tough coupla’ days. Love your last point, Lex. Our God died for us. Theirs killed.
See, I have an entirely different take on this, one that I have not seen expressed, and it does NOT involve killing because he was picked on:
He joined the Army prior to 9/11.
Since 9/11 he had been conflicted in that he was a Muslim and now we were fighting, predominately, Muslims. He was now in the position of assisting infidels in the killing of Muslims. He expressed this conflict to his family, according to the family interviews that I have heard.
So, now, he is being deployed where his worst fear is now realized, that he, in fact, will be involved with fighting, or, more accurately, assisting those who will probably kill his fellow Muslims. His place in the far beyond is now in jeopardy.
It is my belief, as of now anyway, that he decided that his only way of assuring his place with Allah was to earn his 72 virgins by martyring himself while taking out as many soldiers who would, in fact, be fighting his fellow Muslims, as he could.
This was a wartime attack by a devout, “moderate” muslin against the infidels in the name of Allah.
As everyone seems to be concerned with the backlash this may have against “moderate” Muslims, I am more concerned that “moderate” Muslims will follow his lead.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6521758/Fort-Hood-shooting-Texas-army-killer-linked-to-September-11-terrorists.html
This one as well, with both a fellow Muslim officer who by all appearances said nothing to authorities to harm his fellow Muslim’s reputation (a sin according to Shari’a), and a good example of his “guilt,” that other Muslims he knew had gone on to great martyrdoms, and poor him was going off to counsel infidels who were killing fellow Muslims.
Respectfully, I think Lex barks up the wrong tree when he hones in on Hasan’s lack of a wife/woman/goat as a trigger. I’ve said this many time: the Muslim f*ck-up, the failed drug-dealer, or family man with a miserable wife, or psychoanalyst (truly, a f*ck-up in itself), can always fix everything with one act of jihad, preferably one that leads to death by cop—and martyrdom! Now he not only gets laid, but he gets to choose up to 70-some of his family members to enter Paradise, too! He goes from zero to hero with one act of violence. And since the only absolutely certain way of entering Allah’s Paradise is to die in jihad combat with the enemy, it solves everything. Whatever else follows, Hasan has killed infidels in the path of Allah, and in his mind he is now absolutely convinced that Paradise awaits him.
Jihad is the weak dick’s solution to everything.
Oh, lord,
as a follow-on to my comment above, I have just found this at CDR Salamander: http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2009/11/blunt-spin.html
Hey BBC, why don’t you show Duane’s face? Give us his full name.
For the record, a Muslim is not allowed to criticize another Muslim publicly, especially not in front of us infidels. No surprise out of Duane, just another traitor to the nation that gave him everything he has.
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/199501.php
Belay my last, the inimitable Dr Rusty says “Duane” is likely Duane Reasoner, whose parents work on FT Hood. Boy, does this raise some interesting questions.
“At the end of the day it comes down to this: Our guy died for us.
Theirs killed for them.”
The most powerful part of the post. Brings it all into perspective. Thanks Lex, for the exceptional turn of phrase. Needs to go on a banner and into broad distribution.
[...] November 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment You know, I’d like to comment on the FT Hood incident, but I really can’t top the summation of the reasons why that Lex has done here. [...]
Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Seems the shooter was a connoisseur of the finer arts similiar to his saudi brethen… http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,573052,00.html
and the Army Chief is concerned with Diversity http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/us/politics/09casey.html?_r=1
give me a freaking break…
Claudio, you can’t make this stuff up!
“I just can’t believe that he’s the one who killed all those people. You know, he tipped every girl as she came off the stage after her dance. He was a really good tipper.”
and
General George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said on Sunday that he was concerned that speculation about the religious beliefs of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of killing 12 fellow soldiers and one civilian and wounding dozens of others in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, could “cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers.”
As Steyn noted, the score is Muslims 12, backlashers 0.
I’m more than a little sick at how our leaders keep painting the American people with this great big wide brush, labeling us by inference as a bunch of bigoted loonies. Where is the evidence of this “muslim backlash” that seems such a pre-occupation of, well about everyone the media can thrust a microphone in front of?
I don’t recall the vast number of stories highlighting the burning of mosques, the beating of muslims, the desecration of Korans by the thousands by fear-mongering hordes of white christian bigots. Oh I’m sure there have been incidents but its not like we, as a body politic, go running out searching for muslims to tar and feather each time something like Fort Hood happpens. I don’t recall hearing about stories coming out of our military where, gangs of crazed soldiers, angry at the killing of their own by muslim whack jobs within the ranks, have decided to take matters in their own hands by beating the shit out of every muslim in uniform.
This “fear of backlash” is BS. There is no evidence to support it and to keep harping on it betrays an unattractive bias on the part of our leaders who spew it that is just as bigoted, if not more so, than the very fear they seem so concerned of.
The American people are, on the whole, the most tolerant society in the world. Period. To keep slandering us because of some unsupported fear of “backlash” is disgusting. Maybe the good General should spend more time worrying about how many other Maj. Hasan’s lurk in his Army than about how many poor muslims might get a second look and therefore take offense in light of the historical record.