Fort Hood: Not a ‘Tragedy,’ a Call to Arms
November 8th, 2009
David Karki
The biggest terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11 was perpetrated last week. It will never be portrayed or described as such, as we incorrectly use the word “tragedy” and its passive connotation of an event impossible to have prevented to define a horrific crime that was perfectly preventable if we still had what it took to make moral judgments and stand on clear truth.
Too cool.
But make no mistake – it was another attack against America by yet another crazed “footsoldier” in Allah’s army. Once again, innocent Americans are slaughtered on our own thanks to our un-seriousness in fighting what amounts to World War IV. (World War III, the Cold War against communism, is also simultaneously raging hot again, what with totalitarian Obamacare having been rammed through the House yesterday.)
Whatever else you may think of President Bush, he at least responded to attacks in an aggressive, offensive fashion. President Obama responded with shout-outs to his homies at the start of his press conference in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter and by going on vacation to Camp David for the weekend. Neither, of course, did anything to prevent such attacks to begin with, as that would have required a level of political incorrectness of which both were (and are) utterly incapable.
We need to ask some hard questions and respond with some hard answers. Is Islam redeemable? Do the Islamic masses, through their abject silence in response to such butchery, actually support terrorists in their hearts or simply fear them too much to speak out and condemn this? Either way, it doesn’t speak well of Islam, but the time is overdue for them to be forced to make a choice as to with whom they stand: civilization, or monsters. We have let them slide for far too long.
And if the Muslim masses refuse to expose and remove the evil cancer in their midst (and, to continue the analogy, cauterize the wounds inflicted by it so they can heal) then we will be forced to contemplate the reality of what will be necessary in order to defeat radical Islamic terror once and for all.
The closest historical analogy to it is Japanese kamikazes during World War 2. In their cult-like worship of the Emperor Hirohito as god incarnate, they were ready to use their planes as flying bombs for suicide attacks, just like the 9/11 terrorists. Moreover, the entire Japanese population – women and children included – were arming to the teeth to fight an American invasion of the homeland down to the last person for the sake of “honor.” If Japan couldn’t win, then Japan would no longer exist nor would they deserve to.
Only dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki preserved the Japanese people and culture as well as saved tens of thousands of American lives that would have been lost as casualties in a conventional invasion. Once the Japanese realized that there was no honor in being exterminated by enemy they would never even see, much less get to fight, did they finally wake up and surrender. And in so doing, save themselves from oblivion.
I don’t know if radical Islamic terrorists even have that much sense, as convinced as they are that perpetrating slaughter will land them in paradise, surrounded by virgins. Nor do I know if America has what it takes to make such clear moral judgements and harsh calculations as the World War 2 generation did. Right now, we don’t even have the spine to be politically incorrect; some of the stupid “security” mechanisms at airports after 9/11 and some of the ridiculous immigration rules we have would be laughable if they weren’t so lethal.
Do we still know that our way of life, founded on personal freedom and liberty under the rule of law, is the right and best way? Do we believe that enough to die for it, as those who landed at Normandy on D-Day knew they were going to? Do we believe that enough to kill for it, even going as far as to use previously unfathomable tactics should they prove necessary, as those who dropped the A-bomb did?
One thing is for sure: the terrorists certainly believe in their version of radical Islam enough to die and kill for it. And they will not stop until someone or something makes them, either by jolting the Muslim masses into marginalizing them or by their outright elimination.
There are roughly 1.5 billion Muslims in the world; if even one-tenth of one percent are of such a mindset as Major Nidal Malik Hasan or the 19 psychos of 9/11, that means we have 1.5 million terrorists to stop. And just those 20 were able to kill some 3,000+ innocent people, a kill rate of 150 victims each.
Obviously, we do not wish nor is it likely possible to take on all 1.5 billion Muslims. Which makes it all the more imperative that we get politically incorrect, that we speak clear moral truths, that we force the masses to decide if they are with those who wantonly kill in their name or with human civilization.
For if we do not get tough in these ways, it makes such a necessary apocalyptic choice all the more likely. And getting tough starts by calling a terrorist attack what it is – and that’s not “tragedy.”
Posted in David Karki
21 Responses to “Fort Hood: Not a ‘Tragedy,’ a Call to Arms”
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Enough with the ‘Obama is a Socialist’ rhetoric. Giving big, porkbarrel handouts to the likes of Health Maintenance companies, pharmaceutical multinationals and Microsoft (medical records) is hardly ’socialist’. Obama, like his Republican challengers, is simply another corporate puppet, riding into office on hundreds of millions in donations from respectable capitalists like Warren Buffet. As some one from Canada who uses (with satisfaction) a ’socialist’ healthcare system, I can assure you that Obamacare is 180 degrees away from anything to do with Single Payer healthcare. And if we’re playing the ‘who let the Muslims kill us?’ game, look no further than Ronnie ‘Alzheimers” Reagan: his Administration’s support for the Mujaheddin-cum-Taliban led directly to 9/11. Read the slobbering, pro-Mujaheddin propaganda in the conservative press (National Review, P.J. O’Rourke), in the Soviet-Afghan War era. Bush I-II’s War on Secular Ba’athism (Iraq) also helped make the world a safer place for those nice Salafi radicals who keep trying to kill us.
What, exactly, are you proposing here? Are you suggesting we drop the atomic bomb on a Muslim country in retaliation for the Fort Hood killings? Should Muslim Americans be rounded up and interned or deported? Excluded from public transportation or public parks or public schools? Required to sew little yellow crescent moons on their clothing?
What do you have in mind here?
I have in mind not committing civilizational suicide…which is what a failure to properly respond will be. America is not immortal or invincible; we can be brought down and faster than we think.
I’m also trying to not to have to annhiliate large numbers of Muslims in order to guarantee our safety by giving them the chance to point out the terrorist element among them, and to demonstrate that the most of them are not of that ilk.
But we’re so gutless we it comes to challenging political correctness that imams can get on airplanes and mimic the 9/11 terrorists, and WE apologize to THEM. Or we have a psycho in our own military! Are we INSANE?!
Once 9/11 occurred, any right any Muslim had to the benefit of the doubt should have been gone (for a while, at least). And those who weren’t terrorists should have been willing to point out the radicals in their midst, the better not to get inadvertently caught up in such a blanket sweep. (A unfortunate but necessary step FORCED upon us by the evil a small group perpetrated that the larger group has never repudiated.)
But it’s all academic so long as we refuse to get serious and live in a fantasyland, rather than understand the reality that politically correct delusions are LETHAL. They were on 9/11, and they were at Fort Hood. And if we don’t start thinking in stark terms, as those who fought World War 2 were, it will prove lethal to us all.
If you want to commit suicide, Pam, that’s your business. But don’t take the rest of us down with you as you sacrifice civilization upon the altar of political correctness and moral cowardice. Our lives are not yours to place in jeopardy…
DK: I have in mind not committing civilizational suicide…which is what a failure to properly respond will be.
And the proper response is exactly what? Please be specific.
DK: I’m also trying to not to have to annhiliate large numbers of Muslims in order to guarantee our safety by giving them the chance to point out the terrorist element among them, and to demonstrate that the most of them are not of that ilk.
And so what would this involve? How would this “chance” be offered them?Again, please be specific.
DK: imams can get on airplanes and mimic the 9/11 terrorists, and WE apologize to THEM.
What exactly are you talking about here? Those Muslim passengers who got kicked off a plane for praying? The 9/11 terrorists did not board planes and obviously pray.
DK: Once 9/11 occurred, any right any Muslim had to the benefit of the doubt should have been gone (for a while, at least).
So after the Murrah Building bombing, should all white right wingers in the US have been forced to “point out the radicals in their midst” or face a blanket sweep?”
DK: If you want to commit suicide, Pam, that’s your business. But don’t take the rest of us down with you as you sacrifice civilization upon the altar of political correctness and moral cowardice.
I’m not the one messing my pants at the sight of the Muslim family who lives down the street, or the Muslim lady next to me on the bus, or the Muslim gentleman who works in my office building.
What do you think should become of these? Please be specific. How would their lives change, if you had your way?
If you have the guts.
I can think of several things, from a moratorium on all Muslim immigration to possibly investigating the finances of Muslim groups. Some might be fairly simple to do, others would be quite ugly and risk opening the proverbial Pandora’s Box. I would prefer to avoid this if possible, but not at the price of allowing such slaughter to continue in as unabated fashion as it has thus far.
But it’s all an exercise in the purely hypothetical if we can’t summon the will to actually do any of it. Right now, we’re not close. Heck, the more closely one fits a terrorist profile, the LESS likely we are to investigate them, so thoroughly has political correctness poisoned our mindset.
And I’m not sure if even a mushroom cloud over a major city would be enough to wake many from their stupor.
So I guess we’ll continue down this suicidal road; BTW, check out this link for photos of some of those innocent people who were slaughtered just so some Muslims wouldn’t be inconvenienced: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/08/article-1225627-0720E70C000005DC-0_634×299_popup.jpg
These people are DEAD because you mess your pants at the thought of being politically incorrect! Why are their LIVES less valuable/important than the FEELINGS of Muslims which you elevate to such an undeserved level? (Many of whom would still kill you where you stood – or force you underneath a burka to effectively erase your public existence – no matter how much consideration you showed them.)
Mr. Karki is correct, Ms. Troy. Our country and our way of life face an existential threat from an intractable enemy who is determined to destroy us.
Earlier generations, such as The Greatest Generation of WWII, knew how to address an existential threat. They went after the source of the threat an annihilated it without qualm. They did it for their country, their families, and their neighbors. It was work that had to be done, and they did it.
But the American citizenry of today has almost completely lost its instinct for survival. We recoil from the fact that we have lost more than 4,000 servicemen and women since 2003. And we revile the military that sent those servicemen and women off to die. Further, we do not want to harm others, no matter how much harm they may inflict upon us.
We have come to believe that if we are nice to others, they will reciprocate. This is suicidal nonsense of the sort proselytized by our current president.
If we continue down this road, we will assuredly become extinct.
Considering that one of the chief commandments of Islam is that all non-muslims must be converted, enslaved (dhimmitude), or put to the sword, Islam declared war on the rest of the world over 1300 years ago, and that war will not end until the world’s population is 100% muslim or 100% non-muslim.
That’s not war-mongering. That’s just the simple truth. They are at war with us, but the western world is either too frightened to admit it, or refuses to believe it, thinking that if we only play nice-nice with the muslims all will be good.
T’ain’t gonna happen, McGee.
Well David,
If you feel so strongly then why don’t you and all the male members of your family enlist in the US Army or US Marine Corp and immediately volunteer for multiple tours of duty in Afghanistan. Otherwise my friend you are just speaking a bunch of canard! Maybe you are a budding Rush Limbaugh, another blowhard who did not have the courage to answer the call to arms during Vietnam. You just prefer to stay in the rear with the liberal girlymen and the women!
Walter,
A Conservative Patriot who has served his country abroad, and who happens to be a Black American!
Walter,
Why do you assume that Mr. Karki hasn’t served?
How would you know such a thing?
DK: I can think of several things, from a moratorium on all Muslim immigration to possibly investigating the finances of Muslim groups. Some might be fairly simple to do, others would be quite ugly and risk opening the proverbial Pandora’s Box. I would prefer to avoid this if possible, but not at the price of allowing such slaughter to continue in as unabated fashion as it has thus far.
BUT (heavy sigh and EVER-so-regretful look) if the mass, deliberate, and indiscriminate slaughter of Muslim men, women and children is what it takes…
What I’m reading here is the same old same old uttered by pretty much every advocate off mass slaughter in history, Christian, Muslim, Communist, Fascist, etc…
DK: These people are DEAD
So are these:
http://images16.fotki.com/v301/photos/3/318403/3456505/haditha-vi.jpg
Shall we compare pictures of the dead? Tote up the bodies? Compare scores? Know what thugs and killers all have in common, whether they’re the people who fly airplanes full of terrified passengers into skyscrapers, or set off truck bombs in front of office buildings, or just march into refugee camps and slaughter everything that moves? It’s a handy, all-service rationale, used for anything from mass deportations, to internments, to blacklists, to torture, to outright murder.
The same rationale you’re offering here. “We have no choice! It’s us or them! We don’t have TIME to sort out the innocent from the guilty because we’re just too SCARED!”
DK: Because you mess your pants at the thought of being politically incorrect!
I have no hesitation in saying that I’m far more afraid of doing something shameful and unjust than I am of the Muslims who I know and interact with every day.
Strange as it may seem to you, I don’t consider fairness, tolerance, and common decency things to be thrown out the window at the first whiff of danger.
DK: Why are their LIVES less valuable/important than the FEELINGS of Muslims
It’s not a matter of their lives being “less valuable/important than the FEELINGS of Muslims.” It’s a matter of the lives of American Muslims being no less valuable and important than the lives of other Americans.
What you’re advocating here is the same moral cowardice that sent countless Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II.
SV: Earlier generations, such as The Greatest Generation of WWII, knew how to address an existential threat. They went after the source of the threat an annihilated it without qualm. They did it for their country, their families, and their neighbors. It was work that had to be done, and they did it.
And we look back on the internment of Japanese Americans with pride now, do we?
SV: And we revile the military that sent those servicemen and women off to die.
Nobody here has “reviled” the military.
SV: We have come to believe that if we are nice to others, they will reciprocate.
Riiiight. Abu Ghraib, the legalization of torture, the tossing out of habeas corpus, all are examples of us being “nice” to others.
Crawfish: Considering that one of the chief commandments of Islam is that all non-muslims must be converted, enslaved (dhimmitude), or put to the sword, Islam declared war on the rest of the world over 1300 years ago, and that war will not end until the world’s population is 100% muslim or 100% non-muslim.
What exactly are you advocating? The forced conversion of all Muslims?
Walter…David’s grandfather was in the Navy in WWII, David wasn’t born until after the Vietnam War, his uncle served in the Navy during the Vietnam War and his father was also in Vietnam as a Navy corpsman attached to the Marines and did volunteer for front line duties. Dave has no brothers so what more would you like his family to do as far as serving in the military?! And he is medically disabled from the military as well. Be careful what you say when you don’t know anything about it. By the way, do you have military experience?
I also believe the muslims, unless they can prove me wrong, are trying in any way possible to take over every country they can (check out France and soon England). You should read Bridgit Gabriel’s books and look at her website. So until it is proven otherwise I believe the massacre at Ft. Hood was a terrorist act by a terrorist, and I hope he gets his punishment.
[...] that we are in a religious war of extermination, and have been for over 1300 years? Not as long as political correctness rules the roost in the United States and the rest of the western civilized [...]
Ms. Troy, a few points and questions.
1) Is there a reason your first argument was a thinly-veiled Reduction Ad Hitlerum argument? (I refer to your line “Required to sew little yellow crescent moons on their clothing?” here – it’s hard to see how that could be anything else.)
2) I am not an expert on the Muslim belief system, but from what I do know, I see no reason to assume that either Mr. Karki nor The Crawfish are in any way misstating the argument. Perhaps you know some individuals of Islamic faith who aren’t plotting to convert/enslave/kill you – congratulations, you’ve simply run into some of the less-than-faithful members of the religion. I wish you well in your dealings with them.
3) In exactly what way is having the people of the United States defend ourselves from attack shameful? You seem to be equating the two, and I do not understand the logic you appear to be using.
4) You mention Christians in your list regarding ‘advocate off(sic) mass slaughter’. Exactly what historical events lead you to believe that Christians have done so? I suspect you will bring up the Crusades; my response to this is to point out that they have (to me at least) always felt more like an issue of Vatican Political Gamesmanship than an issue regarding faith. Have you any other events to bring forward?
Ender: 1) Is there a reason your first argument was a thinly-veiled Reduction Ad Hitlerum argument? (I refer to your line “Required to sew little yellow crescent moons on their clothing?” here – it’s hard to see how that could be anything else.)
Yes, there is. Dehumanizing rhetoric never really changes, whether it’s about Jews in Germany during the ’30s, blacks in the American south during much of the 19th and 20th century, or Muslims in post 9/11 America. “They smell bad!” “Yeah, some of them ACT civilized, but it’s all a lie!” “Golly, we sure are going to hate it if, by their sheer evilness, they force us wipe out all or most of them…”
This unchanging nature of dehumanization was illustrated in 2006 by a radio talk show host, Jerry Klein. Klein announced to his listeners that he thought all Muslims should be forced by the American government to wear “an identifying marker.” ““I’m thinking either it should be an arm band, a crescent moon arm band, or it should be a crescent moon tattoo,” he said.
“The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be ‘off his rocker.’ The second congratulated him and added: ‘Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country … they are here to kill us.’
Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver’s licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. ‘What good is identifying them?’ he asked. ‘You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans.’
At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of ‘the threat in our midst’ would alleviate the public’s fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax.”
Ender: Perhaps you know some individuals of Islamic faith who aren’t plotting to convert/enslave/kill you – congratulations, you’ve simply run into some of the less-than-faithful members of the religion. I wish you well in your dealings with them.
I also know some individuals of Christian and Jewish faiths who aren’t plotting to convert/enslave/kill me. Does that make them less-than-faithful members of the religion? (See Numbers 33) And are you, in all seriousness telling me that you believe the vast majority of American Muslims are secretly plotting to either enslave or kill me?
How about those Christians who identify as Mormons? Are most of them plotting to enslave and kill me?
Ender: In exactly what way is having the people of the United States defend ourselves from attack shameful?
I don’t think defending the US from attack is shameful. I think scapegoating an entire group of Americans — as we did with German Americans during World War I, Japanese Americans during World War II, and as some would like to do with Muslim Americans today — is shameful.
Ender: You mention Christians in your list regarding ‘advocate off(sic) mass slaughter’. Exactly what historical events lead you to believe that Christians have done so? I suspect you will bring up the Crusades;
No need to go back that far. The mass killings of Muslims by Christian troops at Sabra and Shatila and the depredations in Guatemala by Evangelical Christian strongman Efrian Rios Montt will serve as a couple of examples.
Ms Troy:
1) I can’t speak for the hoaxer, nor can I speak for those take such things seriously. I personally do not agree with the idea. However, you did not originally offer the argument in terms of ‘dehumanizing’ behavior, you offered a direct comparison to Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. You now bring a second argument (the American South during the period known as ‘Jim Crow’) to make the ‘dehumanizing’ point, but you did not bring this forward earlier, only the Reductio Ad Hitlerum argument. Perhaps your case does hold some merit; that you can provide a second piece of evidence does speak in favor of it to an extent. I simply question why you did not present this evidence before being challenged.
2a) You refer to Numbers 33 in referencing the issue of ‘I also know some individuals of Christian and Jewish faiths who aren’t plotting to convert/enslave/kill me. Does that make them less-than-faithful members of the religion?’ I presume you refer to the tail end of the chapter, as the main body of it is simply a list of the places the Children of Israel traveled to between leaving Egypt and arriving in Canaan. The issue there, however, is a specific point in time; it is not a general call to mass enslavement and/or genocide. It should also be noted that, on the evidence, it was for the actions of the prior inhabitants that the issue was given; their being broken as nations was the just penalty for their own sins. Reading the history of Israel after the nation was settled shows that, when Israel acted the same way the nations around them did, they too were penalized in similar manner. As I read it, it seems that the only reason Israel survived as a nation in pretty much every one of these cases was because of the covenant YHWH established with Abraham; without that, I have no doubt they too would have been destroyed. (I would recommend starting with the book of Judges in reading this; it contains a fair list of specific instances when such rebellions against God occurred.)
2b) I do not believe the vast majority of American Muslims are plotting to enslave and kill you. Leaving aside the fact that most of them don’t know you exist, I simply speculate that, insofar as their actions show them to be honorable citizens of the United States of America, they are in violation of the strict tenets of their own religion. From what I have seen, the duality of citizenship between the two systems is impossible; the systems themselves appear to be incompatible one with another and when they meet, one must give way.
2c) The Mormon faith, despite their claims, is not Christian. It is based on what the apostle Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 11:3-4; Another Jesus, Another Spirit, Another Gospel.
However, please note, I do not believe they are plotting to enslave and kill you either.
3) I fail to see that the entire group is being scapegoated; what I see publicly is that some are calling for watchfulness with regard to those who have, by word or action, made it clear their allegience to their faith takes precedence over their allegience to their country in a case where the two allegiences are incompatible. This is not the entire group; it is simply that subset of the group likeliest to engender dangerous consequences if note taken seriously.
4) I cannot speak for Sabra or Shatila; I will attempt to look those up and return later. From what I have seen regarding Jose Efrain Rios Montt, he represents another case of a Political Gamesmanship hiding behind a veil of faith. The scriptures warn that false teachers will be prevalent in the last days (and those have been going on since Jesus Christ ascended to heaven). I do not care whether a man professes to be a Christian; if his life does not reflect Jesus Christ, I will not believe it of him. Some few, perhaps, I will turn out to be mistaken on (and will then offer my apologies to); I believe that I would be mistaken many more times over were I to uncritically accept any man who claimed such of himself by word alone.
I apologize, the word ‘note’ in the last sentance of point 3) should have been the word ‘not’.
Ender: I cannot speak for Sabra or Shatila; I will attempt to look those up and return later.
For God’s sake learn some history.
Ender: From what I have seen regarding Jose Efrain Rios Montt, he represents another case of a Political Gamesmanship hiding behind a veil of faith.
No doubt many Muslims would like to believe the same about Osama bin Laden. Sorry, but saying “he’s not a real Christian” when, in response to a request for examples of Christian killers, is a self-serving cop-out.
Ender: I can’t speak for the hoaxer, nor can I speak for those take such things seriously. I personally do not agree with the idea.
So what? The point is that many Americans do.
Ender: However, you did not originally offer the argument in terms of ‘dehumanizing’ behavior, you offered a direct comparison to Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. You now bring a second argument (the American South during the period known as ‘Jim Crow’) to make the ‘dehumanizing’ point…
So because I didn’t actually use the term “dehumanizing” and bring up the Jim Crow south, I can’t introduce these things while expanding on what I posted? Are you serious?
Ender: You refer to Numbers 33 in referencing the issue of ‘I also know some individuals of Christian and Jewish faiths who aren’t plotting to convert/enslave/kill me. Does that make them less-than-faithful members of the religion?’ I presume you refer to the tail end of the chapter…
Do you think Christians and Jews who don’t stone to death blasphemers, adulterers, disobedient children and sabbath breakers are “less-than-faithful members of the religion?”
2b) I do not believe the vast majority of American Muslims are plotting to enslave and kill you. Leaving aside the fact that most of them don’t know you exist…
Do you believe the vast majority of American Muslims are plotting to enslave and kill nonMuslims?
Ender: I do not believe they (Mormons) are plotting to enslave and kill you either.
Do you believe Mormons are plotting to kill nonMormons?
Ender: I fail to see that the entire group is being scapegoated; what I see publicly is that some are calling for watchfulness with regard to those who have, by word or action, made it clear their allegience to their faith takes precedence over their allegience to their country in a case where the two allegiences are incompatible.
Of course it is scapegoating to say that, in the wake of a tragedy like 9/11, all Muslims must “prove” their loyalty. It was scapegoating when it was done to Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, and it’s scapegoating when it’s done to Muslims today.
“But we’re so gutless we it comes to challenging political correctness that imams can get on airplanes and mimic the 9/11 terrorists, and WE apologize to THEM. Or we have a psycho in our own military! Are we INSANE?!”
Indeed, you had a psycho in your military. Which is not the same as an ethnic group. Don’t forget that you also have thousands of American Muslims who serve in your army, and who are willing to die for their country in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of them already did.
Did you propose a civil war against Christians after the bombing committed by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma ?