NY POST 11/7/09
Ralph Peters
On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting, "Allahu
akbar!" ("God is great!") committed the worst act of terror on American soil since
9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.
What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at
Fort Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case
of nondenominational shoplifting.
This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot
against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it's
an act of terror. Period.
When the terrorist posts anti-American hate speech on the Web; apparently
praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies;
argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their
sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female
colleagues; lists his nationality as "Palestinian" in a Muslim spouse-matching
program and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit -- well, it
only seems fair to call this terrorist an "Islamist terrorist."
But the president won't. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because
there's no such thing as "Islamist terrorism" in ObamaWorld.
And the Army won't. Because its senior leaders are so sick with political
correctness that pandering to America haters is safer than calling terrorism
"terrorism."
And the media won't. Because they have more interest in the shooter than in our
troops -- despite their crocodile tears.
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan planned this terrorist attack and executed it in cold blood.
The resulting massacre was the first tragedy. The second was that he wasn't
killed on the spot.
Hasan survived. Now the rest of us will have to foot his massive medical bills.
Activist lawyers will get involved, claiming "harassment" drove him temporarily
insane. There'll be no end of trial delays. At best, taxpayer dollars will fund his
prison lifestyle for decades to come, since our politically correct Army leadership
wouldn't dare pursue or carry out the death penalty.
Maj. Hasan will be a hero to Islamist terrorists abroad and their sympathizers
here. While US Muslim organizations decry his acts publicly, Hasan will be
praised privately. And he'll have the last laugh.
But Hasan isn't the sole guilty party. The US Army's unforgivable political
correctness is also to blame for the casualties at Fort Hood.
Given the myriad warning signs, it's appalling that no action was taken against a
man apparently known to praise suicide bombers and openly damn US policy.
But no officer in his chain of command, either at Walter Reed Army Medical
Center or at Fort Hood, had the guts to take meaningful action against a
dysfunctional soldier and an incompetent doctor.
Had Hasan been a Lutheran or a Methodist, he would've been gone with the
simoom. But officers fear charges of discrimination when faced with misconduct
among protected minorities.
Now 12 soldiers and a security guard lie dead. At least 38 people were wounded,
28 of them seriously. If heads don't roll in this maggot's chain of command, the
Army will have shamed itself beyond moral redemption.
There's another important issue, too. How could the Army allow an obviously
incompetent and dysfunctional psychiatrist to treat our troubled soldiers returning
from war? An Islamist wacko is counseled for arguing with veterans who've been
assigned to his care? And he's not removed from duty? What planet does the
Army live on?
For the first time since I joined the Army in 1976, I'm ashamed of its dereliction of
duty. The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one
red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something
about him.
Get ready for the apologias. We've already heard from the terrorist's family that
"he's a good American." In their world, maybe he is.
But when do we, the American public, knock off the PC nonsense?
A disgruntled Muslim soldier murdered his officers way back in 2003, in Kuwait,
on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Recently? An American mullah shoots it
out with the feds in Detroit. A Muslim fanatic attacks an Arkansas recruiting
station. A Muslim media owner, after playing the peace card, beheads his wife. A
Muslim father runs over his daughter because she's becoming too Westernized.
Muslim terrorist wannabes are busted again and again. And we're assured that
"Islam's a religion of peace."
I guarantee you that the Obama administration's nonresponse to the Fort Hood
attack will mock the memory of our dead.