Islamic Terrorism? Let's Call It What It Really Was-Treason

That is what I would designate the recent attacks at the Fort Hood Texas Army base committed by recently promoted Major Nidal Malik Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, of all things, apparently due to be stationed in either Iraq or Afghanistan, a future deployment which may have in fact been the major motivation behind the psychotic onslaught against his fellow American soldiers.

And make no mistake, Hassan was an American, born and raised in this country, though a son of Palestinian immigrants and a lifelong Muslim.

Yet, a perusal of his records is enough to make one wonder why he was promoted, and for that matter why he was not given a general discharge. That in fact would have been a kindness. He was obviously unfit for duty. I am not so quick as some others to ascribe political correctness for the reasons many of his antics were overlooked. Frankly, there is a heavy shortage of Arabic speaking soldiers and translators, and he filled a need he had no desire to fill.

But that is just the beginning. This is a man noted to engage in pro-Islamic diatribes against Americans and against his fellow soldiers, a man who applauded the actions of a recent Islamic convert in the shooting deaths of two Arkansas Army recruiters. This was a man who expressly stated at a public meeting that non-Muslims deserved to be beheaded, or set on fire. This was a man who stated that Muslims should strap suicide belts on and pay a visit to Times Square in New York.

This was a very seriously disturbed individual, and claims that he was harassed by his fellow soldiers due to his Islamic faith, even if true to some extent, does not by any stretch of the imagination begin to excuse his actions.

In fact, this attack might have been in the planning stages as far back as May or this year, when a blog entry was written by a man who used as his screen name Nidal Malik Hassan. In it, Hassan compared the recent heroism of an American soldier who jumped on a grenade to save the lives of his fellow American soldiers as an act of heroism akin to the actions of a suicide bomber who kills American soldiers in order to save Muslim lives.

Although the journal is currently being investigated, there has yet been no definitive proof offered that it is the same Nidal Malik Hassan. Still, it is a chilling document. As for Major Hassan, he is now paralyzed as the result of the bullets which put an end to his rampage, and he languishes now on a ventilator. He might well possibly spend the rest of his life in that condition, which will make any trial of him problematic at best.

That is too bad, as there needs to be a trial, a trial on charges of treason. Whether the death penalty is implemented, although it is certainly warranted, is not of major concern. It is actually a lesser issue in comparison to the need to set the example that this type of activity should not be allowed to stand, or be excused, or explained away. It should be designated exactly for what it is-the actions of a demented, depraved individual who abused the rights and privileges of his position of power and responsibility, and dishonored his country and his uniform, all for the insane tenets of a barbarous seventh century Middle Eastern style Orthodoxy that is best left to the confines of a museum, or for that matter, a zoo, albeit one not fit for any of nature's nobler beasts.

I do not fault any of the major news medias, at first glance, for failing to report the facts of Hassan's Islamic faith, even though the mere reporting of his name made it seem painfully obvious as to what was going on. I would assert that it would have been quite legitimate for the question to be raised. Having said that, I can certainly understand why they would feel compelled to not jump the gun or, as the saying goes "rush to judgment", even if the judgment was in fact staring us in the face with fingers flapping about the ears while a big long tongue stuck out at all of us. Obvious assumptions are not facts until they are confirmed as such. I get that. I just wish they would be consistent about it. For example, I would wish they would be willing to report the facts when they are confirmed as such, as opposed to filing them away when it is convenient to do so. These are what you call crimes of omission, and you can include among their numbers the crime I alluded to earlier which occurred in Arkansas, when a Muslim convert gunned down two Army recruiting officers. You never heard this story reported in the mainstream media. If not for the blogs, it would have been all but unknown. Thanks to the dereliction of the media, it is still a relatively obscure story.

This of course was a story that was not so easy to ignore, and so now the people of CAIR and other Islamic American organizations are worried about a potential backlash, expressing shock and condemnation of Hassan's crime while at the same time insisting we should not be so quick to judge this as a case of Islamic terrorism.

Other Muslims have followed suit on individual levels-here, for example-expressing disapproval and dismay at Hassan's actions, while one even went so far as to assert a potential correlation with Guy Fawkes Day, pointing out the crime at Fort Hood coincided with the anniversary of that British holiday.

As one might expect, there are numerous military blogs, official as well as privately owned, and run the gamut of personal opinions dealing with what potentially might have been Hassan's motivations.

As for me, like I said, whatever the facts or theories of the case, I'm fine with treason. Let's go with that, and set an example with this piece of shit, and any others who might be tempted to follow his path, of whatever faith they try to wrap around their useless, meaningless lives.