Cal Thomas: Politically exploit a tragedy

It was extremely sad and tragic that thirteen people, 12 soldiers and 1 Spokane, Washington native who eventually moved to Texas and a civilian contractor, died in a horrible massacre.    It is quite another matter to use a rare incident to stridently attack all Muslims in this country and even further, to use this tragedy to extend hatred toward “liberals,” “the politically correct,” “brain-washed dupes,” and etc.  And whom would Mr. Thomas regard as “the wise,” anyway?  Or of “sound mind?”  Considering his frothing histrionics these days over anything and everything to do with Islam.  The wise and those of sound mind would in fact recognize that in all of the centuries that this U.S. of A. has existed, just how many times have American soldiers committed fratricide?  I’d have to say that with the best of my knowledge, there have only been three such incidents and only in the last few decades.  And of the 3 incidents in question, two were committed by Muslims.  So, why did Thomas not froth over the incident at a Pacific Northwest Military base where a non-Muslim went on a lethal rampage?  Oh, because he wasn’t Muslim, I suppose.

One shouldn’t have to rehash old arguments,  but just how tolerant would Cal Thomas be toward “Christian” based terrorism? After all, Timothy McVeigh was a good ol’ American with military experience and undeniably “Christian.”  He also developed a pure hatred for all things government, accused the American government of putting a microchip in him to “keep track of his whereabouts,” and eventually blew up a federal building; engaging in a more lethal rampage by killing 168 people, men, women and children.  Oh, and McVeigh’s actions were definitely excused by other people with their own hatred of the government.

Should we call such people who could excuse the actions of a “Christian” terrorist as politically correct, “liberal,” brainwashed dupes?  Of course not.  How about “Christians” who went around bombing abortion clinics and killing abortion providers such as Dr. George Tiller?  And all of those people who came out in droves to proclaim their support for Dr. Tiller’s murderer, Scott Roeder?  Can we say that they were brainwashed dupes, “liberal,” politically correct or not of sound mind?  Actually, it has to be as long as they are in 1,000% agreement with where Mr. Thomas stands now as to political ideology that he will be greatly tolerant of themselves.  In other words, dangerous and lethal extremism can in fact be tolerated as long as it is my extremism.

There is no question that Thomas bigotry is showing.  He rants and raves in column after column attacking Muslims at every turn, especially Muslims who came to this country seeking freedom to worship as they please.  Muslims, the vast majority of whom serve this country in the U.S. Military; who I am sure wouldn’t threaten their fellow servicemen.  Whereas, there have been plenty of “Christian” servicemen who have proselytized and even sought to baptize “and make Christian” fellow servicemen.  And all of this without one word of complaint from Thomas.  Of course, when they are “Christian,” they can’t “get into trouble” for making public attempts at  proselytizing and public baptisms of their fellow members of the U.S. Armed Forces.  Nor are they going to “get into trouble” for wearing any symbol of their faith.  But we should all be damned afraid of an American soldier and Psychiatrist who wears religious garb when off-duty.  Especially if he is a Muslim.

If he is a Psychiatrist, so Thomas decrees, he shouldn’t have takien advanced firearms training.  He’d have no need to.  Uh, wasn’t he supposed to have deployed to Iraq(?) in a number of days?  Then, he’d probably have need to.  As you never know what trouble even psychiatrists deployed in a theater of war might get into if they didn’t know how to fire a weapon.  That is, any other psychiatrist but Hassan.  Yes, I am sure that this Islamic psychiatrist did have personal objections to the U.S. presence in the Middle East.  So did many an American in general have objections to the U.S. being present in a theater of war in the Middle East.  But we can suddenly be “tolerant of them” as long as they aren’t anti-war Muslims, right?  Except when we find it politically convenient to not be tolerant of them at all.

Thomas has a problem.  This nation is built on a foundation of freedom.  The freedom to believe what you wish, the freedom to practice what you believe,  the freedom to say what you wish even in dissent.  And a Muslim psychiatrist who joins the U.S. Military is primarily doing so because he is there defending those freedoms.

I can’t hope to read the man’s mind.  I can’t hope to speculate or second guess why he would flip out and gun down his fellow soldiers in an act of fratricide.  That must be up to a judge in a courts martial where the facts come out.  But, Thomas isn’t going to wait for such niceties as letting justice take its course, he’ll condemn now!  And tell the rest of us, “I told you so,” because this is the third time that soldiers died at the hands of a fellow soldier in a non-theater of war situation.  And the perpetrator just happened to be a Muslim.  And use 13 dead (who knows of what diverse religions they may well have been) as further “proof” of the war that Islam has against this country and a war “they” are intent on winning.

Do I excuse Hassan being a fanatic?  I do not.  Would I disregard Hassan’s actions of violent extremism?  I do not.  Fanaticism and extremism is always something to be feared.  And yes, he should be held to account for the murders of his fellow soldiers.  But, let us not use his actions to condemn a country or a president, or even those of the opposing political ideology as Thomas prefers to do.  Until Hassan flipped out, he was defending Thomas’ right to disparage his Islamic belief.  How about that.

Wonder if Thomas would manage to remember something like that?  No?  So if he had been a man named Smith and was a devout “Christian,” and committed fratricide of his fellow soldiers about to deploy overseas; would Thomas then regale us with the dangers of fanatical Christianity?  Probably not.  So let us end this post by concluding, it was a terrible tragedy.  My greatest condolences to the survivors of the lives lost.  To the families of the fallen.  To those at Ft Hood, Texas who didn’t expect to find themselves in fatal conflict with a fellow American and soldier.  And let justice be served.