Posted by
RME KRNL on Saturday, November 14, 2009 2:54:53 PM
[I know, at this stage of things, with no trial yet, much less a conviction, that this and that is supposed to be "alleged" or "allegedly" and that "accused" and "subject" are supposed to be used, but if you want to apply those, you just plug them in where appropriate as you read, because I'm not going to worry about all that in this case.]
Well, I wasn't going to write anything about this, because as an old soldier and former Military Police officer I've got a lot of strong feelings and opinions about it, but it's finally gotten to a point where, with some of the other things I'm hearing said and claimed and assumed about it, I'll probably kick the dog, break something or shoot something if I don't write something. And now that I am, I'll probably write a lot.
Just say it, already: "Muslim terrorist." Say it again: "Muslim terrorist." There, see? Not really all that bad, was it? Well, not, that is, unless you have developed an absolute gag reflex to saying the word "terrorist," much less the phrase "Muslim terrorist," like Barack Obama's White House, Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security, and, most recently it seems, the U.S. Army, or at least its top "leadership" in the form of General George W. Casey, Jr., current Chief of Staff of the Army.
It was a surreal few moments when, within three hours of Major (Dr.) Nidal Malik Hasan committing mass murder at Fort Hood on Thursday, November 5, 2009, President Obama first appeared before TV cameras in joining a meeting of Native Americans already ongoing at the White House. He spent the first few minutes giving "shoutouts," that is recognizing people in the audience before him, to include crediting one individual for receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor (a military award) who had never served in the military but who Obama himself had presented with the Freedom Medal (a civilian award) just months before (uh, right person, wrong award, Mr. President -- see what happens when you go off teleprompter?).
Then, he praised the Native American group's work on whatever it was they had been working on and pledged his undying support for what almost sounded like reparations for Native Americans for how badly they had been treated ("by the white man" was of course implied or at least understood). I guess he was "identifying" with them about their ancestors' dispossession, much as he, as a black man, no doubt "identifies" with his ancestors' slavery. (I can "identify," too, by the way, less because of some idealistic notion than because I actually am part Cherokee.)
Those first few minutes sounded like Obama was speaking before the local chapter of the Rotary Club. Then, he finally addressed the Fort Hood massacre, his main message being that we didn't know all the facts yet and should be careful not to jump to conclusions. (Maybe he did learn his lesson after all, after having jumped to conclusions himself about the professional white police sergeant arresting the big mouthed black college professor.) I don't recall now if Obama identified the Fort Hood murderer as a Muslim at that time, but I do clearly recall that the words "terrorist" or "terrorist attack" never passed his lips.
Then, later in the afternoon, we had another surreal TV appearance, this time by Army Chief of Staff, General Casey, who said: "What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here." What?! A greater tragedy?! Now, General Casey was talking about the shooter being Muslim, because he was making the point that we have and need Muslims in the Army and he was trying to forestall any backlash against Muslims in the military because the Fort Hood shooter had by then been named as a Muslim.....but, ah, still not as a terrorist. But "our diversity" being damaged would be an even greater tragedy than the mass murder of unarmed, innocent soldiers and civilians on an Army post?! This from the top "leadership" of our Army?! Are you nuts, General? Hmmm, sounds like the good general had been given his talking points by the White House and was being a good little general. Notably, he also did not say anything resembling the "T" word.
Well, let's hear it for political correctness by Obama, the White House AND the military, shall we? Maybe a whole bunch of PC by a whole bunch of people is what led to, or at least permitted, if not enabled, what Major Hasan did at Fort Hood. I've often said that I'm not too much of a PC guy, but I will be one of the first to give someone the benefit of the doubt. It seems, however, that a lot of PC and giving too much benefit of the doubt are what left Major Hasan free to do his killing.
Why was a medical officer who was supposed to give a major medical presentation to his doctor colleagues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center allowed instead to give an hour-long Power Point presentation about Islam? Why was an Army officer who often clashed with his peers and some of his superiors over the Army's missions in Iraq and Afghanistan not disciplined, or at least severely questioned about it? Why was an officer whose performance was lackluster and who had that verified in his Officer Efficiency Reports (OERs) still promoted to major? Could it be that something like "affirmative action" or "minority quotas" had anything to do with Army promotion boards? Why was a psychiatrist who was counseling soldiers returning from combat zones, many suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), not also counseled himself? If his links to a radical Islamic imam and attempts to contact al-Qaeda were already known to the FBI for months, why wasn't he on some kind of watch list which would have prevented his going into a Killeen, Texas, gun shop in August and paying over $1,000 to buy a state-of-the-art FNH FiveseveN (5.7mm) semi-automatic pistol which comes with three 20-round magazines but for which you can also pay a little extra and get 30-round magazines? My gosh, if you get the 30-round mags, plus already have a round in the pistol's chamber, you're walking around with 91 rounds of ready-to-go firepower.
Since that surreal Thursday morning more than a week ago now, I've listened to and seen much of the print and TV coverage about the Fort Hood massacre, what there has been of it by the so-called mainstream media, and noticed how the lamestream media have also avoided using the "T" word, much less coupled it with the modifier "Muslim" or "jihadist," and Heaven forbid that anyone should utter "Islamofascist," despite the fact that, with each passing day, more and more has come to light about Hasan's association with his former radical Muslim imam and attempts to contact al-Qaeda. In fact, some in the liberal media, out of their usual misguided "compassion" and "humanity," have predictably tried to make Hasan into some kind of victim.
For those who are covering the Fort Hood massacre at all, and especially for those who are covering it but ignoring or downplaying that the killer is a Muslim or who are trying to make the mass murderer out to be some kind of "victim," I have this to say:
Major (Dr.) Nidal Malik Hasan's shouting "Allahu akbar," the universal battle cry of fanatic Muslim jihadists, as he began gunning down 13 people, 12 soldiers and one civilian (or maybe that should be 14, since one of the women he killed was pregnant), and wounding another 30 unsuspecting, unarmed and defenseless people, was not a random act of violence by an Army psychiatrist who "snapped" but by one scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, where American infidels are killing good Muslims. Hasan knew what he was doing, he planned what he did, and he shot down his fellow soldiers in cold blood, reloading and stalking some wounded to shoot them again. He wanted, in his mind, to die a martyr, killing American soldiers who had been, or would soon be, killing Muslim soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.
(Oh, and here's something really un-PC for you: about that dying as a martyr thing, now that we know instead of being killed at the scene himself that he's unfortunately survived being shot, my .45 and I would be glad to assist him with that. Like Richard Boone's TV Paladin -- have gun, will travel. Would be my privilege to kill an enemy of my country. Save the Army a lot of court martial money, too.)
The claim by some in the liberal media that Major Hasan had PTSD when he's never even been deployed, much less to a combat zone, is both ridiculous and obscene. Ridiculous on its face and obscene for those who do legitimately suffer from it, because they've "earned" it by what they've been through. Deployment to a combat zone is what he was soon facing for the first time and was so scared of, the coward. What do the liberals think, that because, as an Army psychiatrist, he counseled some returning soldiers who did have PTSD that it's something you can "catch," like a cold? What idiots! Counseling somebody about PTSD doesn't give you PTSD, any more than it will give you the "thousand yard stare" or make you into that "strange" guy in your unit who sits alone in a corner mumbling to himself and forever sharpening his bayonet whenever he's not out on patrol.
No, no, no! All that lamestream media stuff and continuing PC stuff is BS. Major Hasan did not "snap." He was not a "victim." Whatever stress he was under pales by comparison to those with PTSD whom he was charged to counsel and help. He is a Muslim, and it looks like a radicalized Muslim. He did commit not only a criminal but also a terrorist act. Not all criminal acts are terrorist acts, but all terrorist acts subsume lesser included criminal acts. That kind of distinction is what differentiates killing, or homicide, which may sometimes be justified, as in self-defense, from murder. What elevates them to acts of terrorism is that they are usually horrific, are designed to terrify and are driven by some theological or ideological "cause" or "rationale." Major Hasan is therefore, whatever else he is, a Muslim terrorist, pure and simple, and no amount of PC or any more giving of the benefit of the doubt can change that.
Because he's a Muslim terrorist, because he's also an Army officer, and because he didn't die when he should have after being shot at the scene of his killing spree, I'm glad that he's now been charged by the Army (not by anyone else) with 13 counts of premeditated murder (should be 14, as stated above), and will be tried by a military court martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). It's now being reported that his lawyer, part of whose actual job it is to make Hasan out to be some kind of victim if he can, says that Major Hasan may be paralyzed from the waist down and never walk again. Well, first, boo-hoo. Poor baby. There are at least 13 other people who will never walk again, or breathe again, either, and some of the recovering wounded who will never walk as well again, also. Second, since he didn't die at the scene as he should have, I hope he can walk again, because I want to see him convicted, sentenced to death and -- what I would really like -- publicly hanged. So, I want him to be able to walk up the gallows steps to be hooded by the hangman and have the hemp noose put around his neck.
I'm just wondering, though, even given the 13 counts of premeditated murder, where is the charge of treason? Hasan betrayed his trust as a doctor, as a psychiatrist, as an Army officer, and as an American citizen in gunning down his fellow soldiers and other unarmed, unsuspecting and innocent people, on not only American soil but also on a military post, of all places. I can think of few acts more treasonous.
On a brighter note, Killeen, Texas, the home of Fort Hood, is also the home of Sgt. Kimberly Munley, a North Carolina native, the 34-year-old, 5-foot-2-inch, 120-pound wife of a Fort Bragg Green Beret and mother of three, an Army veteran and a 2-year member of the Department of Defense civilian police force at Fort Hood.
She is also obviously an expert shot and a petite female version of any one of Clint Eastwood's characters on whose bad side you would NOT want to be. "Well, do ya,.....punk?"
The story goes that Sgt. Munley was nearby getting her car tuned up when the 911 call came in. Without waiting for backup, she was the first law enforcement official to arrive on the scene at Fort Hood, engaged the shooter and was wounded but kept returning fire until the shooter went down.
"She Fired Until He Dropped. The Killing Ended."
Much has already been written about Sgt. Munley's bravery, but one of the best descriptions of her behavior in the heat of confronting the Fort Hood mass murderer was by the editorial writers at the Las Vegas Review-Sun:
"Could Sgt. Munley, hit in the wrist and both thighs, really be blamed if she'd ducked for cover? She didn't. From all reports, she stood her ground under fire, calmly reacquiring her sight picture, putting four rounds right where she wanted, in the advancing murderer's center of mass. She fired until he dropped. The killing ended."
Since this account, it has now been reported that another DOD civilian police sergeant also responded to the scene of Hasan's killing spree and engaged and shot him, and that Sgt. Munley was already wounded and on the ground by that time, which makes it sound like perhaps Sgt. Munley didn't fire until Hasan dropped, but that the second police official did.
As an old soldier whose career as a Military Police officer was spent first in law enforcement and later increasingly as a security expert in physical security (facilities and area security) and still later in personal (VIP) security, with a short stint commanding an Army stockade (prison), as well as 13 months in the exotic Far East (Vietnam), thrown in for good measure, I don't understand all the confusion about what happened at the scene with the police officials, especially now more than a week later.
I mean, I personally know such scenes can be chaotic at the time and for quite a while afterward. And I know that if you want 10 different descriptions of what happened, ask 10 different witnesses. I also know that, in the heat of things, sometimes when you think you hit something you fired at, you missed, or you may not even remember exactly how many shots you fired. Adrenaline's pumping and you're just aiming and pulling the trigger, hoping to make it all stop.
But I also know that: (a) there is the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division Command (USACIDC), sort of like the Army's version of the FBI, just as the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is for the Navy and Marines, (b) that most Army posts have CID detachments and a post as large as Fort Hood should have a pretty large one, plus the FBI itself was involved in some of the on-scene investigation in this case, (c) that CID should have been on the scene pretty quickly, and (d) that there are such things as ballistics tests and other forensics, which should be able to pin down almost exactly what happened, in what order, and by whom.
It's been definitely reported that Hasan was shot four times and no doubt that the bullets were removed by medical personnel at the hospital, unless some of them were, as we call them, "through-and-throughs." We know that, in addition to Hasan himself, only the two responding police officials were armed and that one or possibly both of them fired at him until he went down. We know that the police were no doubt armed with their government issue US M9 Berretta 92FS 9mm semi-automatic pistols, and it's known how many rounds that weapon holds.
So, what you do, in addition to collecting eyewitness statements, is verify that each of the police sergeants' weapons has in fact been fired, count the number of rounds fired from each of their weapons, account for any stray rounds which missed their target, and that should come out to the four rounds which hit Hasan. Simple, huh? It's also been long enough now that the bullets removed from Hasan at the hospital should have been ballistics tested, which will show exactly which of the police weapons each bullet came from.
(And I also know that if they had been armed with the old .45 caliber M1911 Colt semi-automatic pistol like I used to carry, or a more updated version thereof, instead of 9mm's, Hasan would have gone down quicker, probably with fewer shots and probably also been "deader." A .45 round -- the size of a nickel going in and, depending on certain circumstances, your fist coming out. Maybe that's why the Army is now considering going back to .45's instead of the 9mm's. But that's all another issue.)
Okay, almost done now. But I can't neglect one of my favorite people in the Obama administration, his inept and inarticulate Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet "it's not terrorism; it's acts of man-made disaster" Napolitano, who was strangely quiet for most of the week following the Fort Hood massacre (but maybe not so strangely, as in lying low) but who, when she did finally emerge and make comments, also assiduously avoided any reference to the "T" word and talked about the most important thing now being that Hasan be brought to justice for his "criminal" acts.
NOOO, MADAME SECRETARY! Wrong -- AGAIN! NOT merely CRIMINAL! TERRORIST! TERRORIST, dammit! Brought to justice for his TERRORIST acts! Ughhh!!
And one of YOUR "most important" things to worry about should be what part YOUR department played, along with other federal agencies, in NOT preventing his terrorism. I mean, isn't that what your whole, big bureaucratic department was created to do -- prevent acts of terrorism from happening on American soil again? No wonder you "hid out" for most of the week.