Fort Hood Tragedy

Yesterday, a soldier went on a crazed shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas, killing at least a dozen and injuring around 30 more.  He was finally stopped by a heroic policewoman, who was injured by return fire:

[Kimberly] Munley, who had been trained in active-response tactics, rushed into the building and confronted the shooter as he was turning a corner, Cone said.

"It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer," Cone said.

Munley was only a few feet from crazed Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan when she opened fire.

Who knows how many lives this woman saved?  Well done.  Thoughts and prayers go out to her and the other injured for a speedy and full recovery, and to the families of those who were killed.

The elephant in the room here -- something that the media appears to be largely trying to avoid reporting -- is that this murderer, Hasan, was a radical Muslim:

Terry Lee, a retired Army colonel who knew Hasan, told Fox News about a story he heard secondhand. He said a fellow colleague had told him that Hasan had made "outlandish comments" about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and US involvement in them and that "Muslims had a right to rise up and attack Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"[He] made comments about how we shouldn't be over there – you need to lock it up, Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," Lee added.

His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients.

There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive. But details of his life and mindset, emerging from official sources and personal acquaintances, are troubling.

At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time such a thing has happened:

Sgt. Asan Akbar, a Muslim American soldier with the 326th Engineer Battalion, had an "attitude problem."

According to his superiors and acquaintances, Akbar's attitude was bitterly anti-American and staunchly pro-Muslim. So how did this devout follower of the so-called Religion of Peace work out his attitudinal problems last weekend?

By lobbing hand grenades and aiming his M-4 automatic rifle into three tents filled with sleeping commanding officers at the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade operations center in Kuwait.

– Ali A. Mohamed. Mohamed, a major in the Egyptian army, immigrated to the U.S. in 1986 and joined the U.S. Army while a resident alien. This despite being on a State Department terrorist watch list before securing his visa. An avowed Islamist, he taught classes on Muslim culture to U.S. Special Forces at Fort Bragg, N.C., and obtained classified military documents. He was granted U.S. citizenship over the objections of the CIA.

Soon after he was honorably discharged from the Army in 1989, Mohamed hooked up with Osama bin Laden as an escort, trainer, bagman and messenger. Mohamed used his U.S. passport to conduct surveillance at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi; he later pled guilty to conspiring with bin Laden to "attack any Western target in the Middle East" and admitted his role in the 1998 African embassy bombings that killed more than 200 people, including a dozen Americans.

– Semi Osman. An ethnic Lebanese born in Sierra Leone and a Seattle-based Muslim cleric, Osman served in a naval reserve fueling unit based in Tacoma, Wash. He had access to fuel trucks similar to the type used by al Qaeda in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers, which killed 19 U.S. airmen and wounded nearly 400 other Americans.

Osman was arrested last May as part of a federal investigation into the establishment of a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon. Osman recently pleaded guilty to a weapons violation, and the feds dropped immigration charges against him in exchange for his testimony.

– John Muhammad. The accused Beltway sniper and Muslim convert was a member of the Army's 84th Engineering Company. In an eerie parallel to the Akbar case, Muhammad is suspected of throwing a thermite grenade into a tent housing 16 of his fellow soldiers as they slept before the ground-attack phase of Gulf War I in 1991. Muhammad's superior, Sgt. Kip Berentson, told both Newsweek and The Seattle Times that he immediately suspected Muhammad, who was "trouble from day one."

Curiously, Muhammad was admitted to the Army despite being earlier court-martialed for willfully disobeying orders, striking another noncommissioned officer, wrongfully taking property, and being absent without leave while serving in the Louisiana National Guard.

Although Muhammad was led away in handcuffs and transferred to another company pending charges for the grenade attack, an indictment never materialized. Muhammad was honorably discharged from the Army in 1994. Eight years later, he was arrested in the 21-day Beltway shooting spree that left 10 dead and three wounded.

– Jeffrey Leon Battle. A former Army reservist, Battle was indicted in October 2002 for conspiring to levy war against the United States and "enlisting in the Reserves to receive military training to use against America." According to the Justice Department, he planned to wage war against American soldiers in Afghanistan.

The problem we have here is that we face a real enemy who is perfectly happy -- and very proficient -- using our societal propensity toward tolerance to get close to targets and wreak havoc, death, and destruction.  When will we realize that radical Islam is a treacherous and extremely dangerous thing?  Don't get me wrong - I'm not talking about all Muslims, nor all who practice Islam.  I am talking about those who are exhibiting clear warning signs of radicalization, as all of these people did.  Do I think we should monitor all religious institutions?  No.  Do I think we should monitor all religious institutions that teach an ideology of hate, death, and destruction?  Absolutely.  Do I think we should profile all Muslims?  No.  Do I think we should profile all Muslims who associate with known terrorists, act suspiciously (like taking flying lessons but want to skip over the part about landing), and who take long trips to places like Afghanistan and Iran?  Absolutely.  It's common sense, and to do otherwise is to invite fatal incidents like this over and over and over.

And who is enabling these people?  Liberals and Leftists who have a grossly misplaced sense of priorities, and who would rather allow a murderous rampage than hurt anyone's feelings by implementing policies that acknowledge reality.  We have no further to look for evidence of this than our very own President:

On Thursday, 11 soldiers and civilian police at Fort Hood were slaughtered execution-style at close range and over 30 others wounded, allegedly by a U.S. Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan. The President immediately addressed the nation concerning this horrific event.

However, his expression of grief was very odd. He spent the first two minutes of the four-and-a-half minute address in a light-hearted discussion of his earlier "Tribal Nations Conference" on Native American rights, including a "shout out" recognition of a conference attendee.

When he finally got around to the purpose for his public appearance, he gave an uninspired and rambling dissertation on the tragedy. Even then, he could not keep the topic focused on sympathy for the pain of others:

I want all of you to know that as Commander in Chief, that there's no greater honor, but no greater responsibility for me (emphasis his) than to make sure that the extraordinary men and women in uniform are properly cared for…

Poor soul, it's so saddening to know how this tragedy affects him. Listening to this address provides some insight into Obama's character and how he ranks his priorities.

This is the same man who, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, expressed sympathy for the terrorists.  Anyone wonder why we're having these problems now?  Anyone doubt me when I say that liberalism is literally dangerous to our nation?  It's not what pulls the trigger, but it most definitely is what's loading the gun.

With Obama and other liberals running the country, I fear we will see more of these incidents in the years to come.

There's my two cents.