Nidal Hassan, not worthy of being called by any rank, was awake yesterday! Now I find it imperative to label his acts on Fort Hood as terrorism. Of course President Obama tells the nation to be cautious before jumping to conclusions about Hassan, Chris Matthews then tells the nation that "it's not illegal to contact Al Qaeda is it?". All this while Anwar al-Awlaki, praising Hassan's shooting spree on Fort Hood, is calling Hassan a hero (see the article).
When Robert Gibbs was asked if he would, by definition, call Hassan's act as terrorism, Gibb's backed off and studdered his way into political correctness by saying that he is not law enforcement and that is a question for the FBI. Do we honor the victim's of this terrorist by telling them to call it a tragedy, not look at Hassan as a terrorist, and grieve together. While we should be grieved and pray for the victims and their families during this time, we should as a nation be angry! We should be angry enough to classify this criminal what he really is… a terrorist! Some may say what's the big deal, he will still get justice, who cares if we classify him as a terrorist. The important thing to remember is that this world and our current government is not willing to call evil what it is… evil.
I am reminded of a season (I believe the 2nd Season) of 24 where the president was under the control of unnamed benefactors who would not allow him to act like a good president should. I believe it was former Governor Palin who says plainly "there is a time for politics and a time for leadership", and this is one of those times. Perhaps we should adhere to the Washington Post's partial take on Hassan, where he is described as one who lives in the porrest conditions, the worst of cars to drive, and trying to make it on an Army salary (see the article). Perhaps we should just say Hassan snapped like President Obama said in a recent interview, and expect, that due to deployment stress, others may do the same thing and kill 13 soldiers, regardless of religious beliefs.
Hassan did not simply go postal, and some his closest friends and colleagues saw the signs clear as day. We live in a world where crosses, ten commandments, and bibles are being removed from public places, and laws about calling homosexuality sin from the pulpit illegal are being passed. We also live in the same world that is willing to cower to extremism in Islam and not call terrorism what it is. I know this… the White House is making a public push to remove the word terrorism from the country's vocabulary, seen first in the change of the "War on Terror", and now this.
What is really hypocritical is President Obama's ability to jump to conclusions on the Harvard shooting in May 2009. He said that first, anyone would be angry over this, and secondly that the Cambridge Police acted stupidly. Now the President is able to make these conclusions on the Harvard incident, but clearly is avoiding making conclusions on this act of terrorism at Fort Hood.I believe that President Obama is fearful of the backlash this may have on the Muslim community here in the US, and I believe a vigilante backlash would be wrong. I do believe that scrutiny of Muslim soldiers is called for, and I can assume most Muslims in our military are true patriots and serve their country honorably, but scrutiny is still necessary.
Two final thoughts… President Obama will probably not sign the warrant for Hassan's death penalty should that come to play, and how soon we forget that President Bush made a promise that terrorism on US soil would not happen on his watch and he kept his word. President Obama is in office less than a year now, and not only did this happen (not really his fault of course), but he cannot even lead this by calling it terrorism. Perhaps we should get a junior high choir to write another song for the praises of President Obama to help us forget this ever happened!
I usually do not come out this strong on political issues, but this is ridiculous!
