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Posted by DAVID ADESNIK in Politics, War.
Nov 10th, 2009 | Comments

Kevin Drum praises Jonah Goldberg for resisting the impulse to call Nidal Malik Hasan a terrorist. A traitor? A murderer? Sure. But not a terrorist.

The strange thing is that liberals assume they should be against labeling Hasan a terrorist and conservatives assume they should be for it. That makes a certain amount of sense. Liberals fear exaggerated threats. Conservatives fear threats that are ignored.

But wouldn’t the Afghanistan doves want Hasan to be a terrorist? Then they can say the real threat is at home, not in Afghanistan. Actyally, nix that. Too complicated. Anyhow, Kevin writes:

Unlike, say, a suicide bomber in Jerusalem, there’s hardly even a hint that he was trying to make any kind of political statement. There was no note, no videotape left behind, no explanation while he was shooting, no nothing. What kind of terrorist does that?

Incompetent ones, I guess. If initial reports of Hasan’s radicalism turn out to be correct, Kevin may have to revise his opinion.

Cross-posted at Conventional Folly

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Father_Time

I'm a liberal and an Afghanistan "dove", (if you count leaving the Afgans to their own hell as a dove).

Of course Hasan is a terrorist. He killed and wounded all these people, whom he had sworn an oath with, as well he swore the Hippocratic oath as a doctor to “do no harm”, because he didn’t get what he wanted. What he wanted was based upon his religious belief, which he well knows is incompatible with western democratic culture. His intent is completely clear IMO.

ProfElwood

With a qualification that he apparently chose his religious belief to match his discontent, I have to agree.

vey9

Do you think that future soldiers will shun Fort Hood? Be afraid to go near the processing center? That's the goal of "terrorism", to disrupt the status quo and make sure it stays disrupted through the use of making people afraid to go somewhere or do something. That's what the Taliban are doing in Afghanistan.

Otherwise, this fellow is just engaged in a deadly religious war, or if you eliminate the religious angle, anarchism.

JeffersonDavis

The failure to call a threat a threat is what lies behind the ingoring of warning signs about Hasan. The political correct police (ACLU, others) would have represented Hasan had they questioned him conserning his loose affiliation with Al Quaida links.

It is this CYA attitude and politically correct nonsense that allowed Hasan to do what he did. CUT IT OUT. This Muslim Extremist scumbag is a terrorist.

GreenDreams

Sean Hannity blamed Obama for ignoring the threat when in fact it was GW Bush. Hasan tried repeatedly to get out of the service and was denied repeatedly. Oh how I wish someone had put the expressed concern with Hasan together with his request to quit and just said 'OK, buh bye'.

vey9

And there are other powder kegs out there. Who knows what will light their fuse?

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