Welcome to September 10

Well, CNN.com succeeded all morning in failing to report that Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan is Muslim, but they’re quoting someone now who mentions it. I see they’ve also finally acknowledged that several soldiers reported Hasan crying “Allahu Akbar!” before opening fire, and that he expressed unambiguous admiration for suicide bombers as recently as six months ago.

I’m sure they’ll get to it really soon now that he listed his nationality as “Palestinian” on some mosque paperwork, that his neighbors report he suddenly began wearing “Arabic clothing” in recent weeks, and that a former colleague quotes him as saying “that maybe the Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor.”

President Obama, known for many wonderful traits but most of all his methodical, wise, and completely informed analysis, cautions against “jumping to conclusions.”

He’s right.  You know, I’m sure it’s just the “psychological toll” of fighting two wars.  Here, want something to read about the “horribly predictable Islamophobia” in the wake of this rampage?  I mean, it’s ridiculous and hateful to suggest that Nidal Malik Hasan just might maybe be a radical Islamic fundamentalist.  Right?  Crazy talk.

I’m glad we’ve got that settled.  I’d much rather be politically correct than safe.

Welcome to September 10.

God be with all those hurting today as a result of the Fort Hood massacre.

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6 thoughts on “Welcome to September 10”

  1. It hits hard. My brother has friends on that base. But even he admits that the vetting process isn’t what it probably should be. And even then, there’s not such a surplus of Army shrinks that he would have been tossed, anyway.

    Doesn’t make it any better.

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  2. As Mrs. BD says, “It’s a stereotype because it’s usually true.” Tell me what you were thinking as soon as his name was released…Hasan….hmmm.

    It’s going to suck to be a Muslim in the military now methinks. Terrible, terrible.

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  3. I keep reading how he didn’t want to be deployed and was trying to get out of the army because they discriminated against his religion. That’s too much like blaming it on the victim. Plus, it’s not like he targeted a specific person that antagonized him. He mowed done a bunch of people who probably held lots of different views. Not to mention, this really does nothing to help people view your choosen religion with MORE tolerance.

    I, also, have a problem with the excuse that “he didn’t want to be deployed”. Um… did you not know when you signed up to be in the military that it might be a possibility? If your real “motivation” is not to go to war, wouldn’t you just go AWOL?

    Do I think all Muslims are like this? Of course NOT! Do I think the guy is nuts? Yep! I’m not buying all the political spin on his “motivation”, though.

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  4. I was assigned to Fort Hood nine years ago. I’ve driven past the shooting scene on numerous occasions but never stopped in there. Back then the site was called the Sports Dome and I believe it was a sports themed bar where soldiers could hang out. I guess it’s now been converted to a deployment processing center.

    This makes the second incident I’m aware of concerning Muslim soldiers fragging their fellow soldiers. I’d guess that most soldiers will now be privately suspicious of any other Muslim American soldiers. I say privately because political correct speak is pretty well entrenched in the military since the Clinton era. I guess most Arab American soldiers are loyal but there can’t be many of them because in my 20 years of service I never met one. I worked with some Arab American civilians in Afghanistan who served as translators. They worked well with us and I never had any reason to question their loyalty.

    There isn’t much that can be done to prevent these types of incidents short of making a draconian policy of not allowing Arab Americans to serve in the military…which I think would be unworkable. Soldiers will probably now be more aware and start paying much closer attention to displays of religious zealotry especially among their Muslim brothers in arms.

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