Odious Evasions

More on those media mavens who evaded Major Hasan's jihadist motive for murder.

"I cringe that he's a Muslim. ... I think he's probably just a nut case," said Newsweek's Evan Thomas. Some were more adamant. Time's Joe Klein decried "odious attempts by Jewish extremists ... to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs." While none could match Klein's peculiar cherchez-le-juif motif, the popular story line was of an Army psychiatrist driven over the edge by terrible stories he had heard from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They suffered. He listened. He snapped.

Yeah, right.

But this too needs to be said. While in some media precincts these sorts of idiotic evasions have been circulated, the real facts of the story have gotten out. Krauthammer quotes NPR's reporting at length. While some commentators and editors continue to avoid certain obvious truths about this terrorist act, a lot of good, solid reporting is being done. The facts are getting out to the public, and the public in general understands what happened at Ft. Hood and why.

More and more it is obvious that the Army brass looked the other way while Maj. Hasan was publicly expressing deeply anti-American and pro-jihadist views. If he had been a white supremecist, he would have rightly been drummed out of the military in short order. But fear of appearing anti-Muslim, seemed to have prevented the top brass from acting in Hasan's case. That fear allowed Hasan to carry out his religious/terrorist mission against U.S. military personnel. Those officers who looked the other way should be held to account.

One of the dumber things that has been said in the aftermath of all this, wasn't said by a media knucklehead. It was said by the Army's top officer, Gen. George Casey.

"Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse,” Casey said.

This was beyond insensitive to families of the soldiers under Casey's command who were murdered. It was a ridiculously stupid thing for him to say. But it goes to show just how politically correct even the U.S. military has become when it comes to worshipping diversity.

Let's be clear: There is NO chance the "diversity" of our military services is going to threatened by some imagined backlash to Hasan's crimes. Not a single serious person has argued for removing all the Muslims serving in our military. And no serious person will.

But 14 people are dead. Not because of "diversity" but because too many in the military bureaucracy became too fearful of being accused of being anti-Muslim to deal with an obvious and known security threat.

Heads should roll. Maybe even Casey's if he actually believes his own idiotic statements.