McCain This Was an Act of Terror; Political Correctness Cause This
Bonus: Walter Reed Shrinks Knew Hasan Was Either Crazy or a Jihadi Since Last Year

A growing chorus.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Wednesday called the Fort Hood killings an “act of terror” and joined a parade of GOP critics in suggesting that “political correctness” might have been a factor in not preventing the shootings.

“We ought to make sure ‘political correctness’ never impedes national security,” McCain said in a speech at the University of Louisville.

McCain’s comments echoed those of a variety of Republican politicians and commentators — as well as Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) — over the past few days as information about the background of the alleged shooter has surfaced in the media. The criticisms, which initially focused on the failure of the administration and the Army to use the word “terrorism” or “jihadism” in connection with Fort Hood, are now being merged with a larger Republican portrayal of the Obama administration’s approach toward terrorism generally.

Good for McCain.

By the way, he's still alive, so if he had been elected we would not yet have to face the fear of having an inexperienced person assuming the presidency.

They Knew He Was Mental: Although, as Allah says, it's not clear he was crazy at all, at least not in medical terms. They may have just been trying to explain his jihadism and Islamofascist zealotry in clinical, nonjudgmental, non-"discriminatory" terms.

And yet they still shipped him off to Fort Hood.

Someone else's problem.

This is what bureaucracies faced with a political correctness charged situation do: No one wants to take ownership of the problem, because there is no correct, winning strategy. If you write this guy up as a jihadist jerkoff, you get a black mark in your file for "discrimination."

Best solution? Just don't deal with it all; pretend it's not a problem; let the problem go to someone else's desk.

That is just human nature and cannot be changed. What can be changed is the policy that is causing this intolerable buck-shifting, and clarifying (while meaning it), that political correctness does not trump security and safety, and that if a Muslim is showing signs of Not So Sudden Jihadi Syndrome, the correct, rewarded action is to write him up and investigate him and maybe discipline and charge him, and the wrong, punished action is to do nothing and hope the bomb explodes on someone else's base.

But I doubt that will happen. We've had this bullshit going on since 9/11.

When a group of key officials gathered in the spring of 2008 for their monthly meeting in a Bethesda, Md., office, one of the leading — and most perplexing — items on their agenda was: What should we do about Hasan?…

Both fellow students and faculty were deeply troubled by Hasan’s behavior — which they variously called disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent, and schizoid. The officials say he antagonized some students and faculty by espousing what they perceived to be extremist Islamic views. His supervisors at Walter Reed had even reprimanded him for telling at least one patient that “Islam can save your soul.”…

One official involved in the conversations had reportedly told colleagues that he worried that if Hasan deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, he might leak secret military information to Islamic extremists. Another official reportedly wondered aloud to colleagues whether Hasan might be capable of committing fratricide, like the Muslim U.S. Army sergeant who, in 2003, killed two fellow soldiers and injured 14 others by setting off grenades at a base in Kuwait.

They actually feared this was coming. And yet, Rule 1 -- do not make waves regarding obviously jihadist Muslims -- still prevailed.

posted by Ace at 05:53 PM

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