re: "Hope, Change, and 99% View 685 20110728"

Dr. Jerry Pournelle at Chaos Manor ("The Original Blog and Daybook.") examined issues of assimilation vs. diversity and of budget crises.

Money quote(s):

"Sowing the wind.

We don’t do breaking news, but it isn’t so much news as settling “when”: there has been another plot by a Muslim soldier to kill his comrades in protest against being “forced” to participate in the unjust wars in the Middle East.

U.S. officials told ABC News an AWOL serviceman, identified by the FBI as a Private First Class Naser Jason Abdo, was arrested Wednesday after making a purchase at Guns Galore in Killeen, Texas, the same ammunition store where Maj. Nidal Hasan purchased the weapons he allegedly used to gun down 13 people and wound 32 others on Nov. 5, 2009.

As to why it isn’t news:

Abdo told ABC News in 2010 he was Muslim and should not have to participate in what he called an "unjust war" in the Middle East.

"Any Muslim who knows his religion or maybe takes into account what his religion says can find out very clearly why he should not participate in the U.S. military," Abdo said then.

Welcome to the joys of diversity and entitlement. America was not built as a society of entitlement and diversity. There was a founding culture. It was a culture of tolerance, but tolerance is not the same as the celebration of “diversity.” Immigrants were always encouraged to assimilate. They were not forced to do so, but the public system tolerated diversity; it didn’t force it. There were crèches in the public square at Christmas. Later we added the menorah. Almost all public ceremonies were opened by an invocation by a Protestant minister. Over time we added a Catholic priest (and of course some communities always had included Catholics, although most had not). Later we added a rabbi. All of this was to show some deference to the American culture. We would tolerate diversity as a monument to our liberty but we did not set the public hangman the task of destroying the crèche in the public square. We did not use the courts as an engine of destruction of our culture.

Then we began to sow the wind. All cultures are equal. There is no American culture as such.

We have coupled diversity with egality and added entitlements. We have sown the wind.

And we reap the whirlwind. Nidal Hasan and Naser Abdo are not the last of the pale riders."

Dr. Pournelle, as the original blogger, has been around long enough to see certain long-lead-time trends take shape over the period of decades. That perspective is important to those of us who've come after.

"National unity is not a given. Patriotism is not free. For an example relevant to today’s story: imagine an Amish soldier who insists on his right to be part of the Army, but that the Courts prevent the Army from using motorized vehicles anywhere near him since the sight of them offends him; now imagine a court granting that, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding that decision.

We can endure regional diversity. The abortion issue is an example. There is no national consensus. Shall we send armed agents to enforce whatever happens to be the opinion of a majority at the time? Shall the Army insist that Mother Superior perform abortions in St. Joseph’s, or jail abortionists who perform them? Left to the states the issue is endurable.

The goal is a society that holds together, not one of some ideal perfection."

This was written last July. Now we have nearly the exact absurdity, insisting that Mother Superior and St. Joseph's pay for abortions, becoming a matter of federal law.

"It is important to understand that no Congress has the power to bind a future Congress. If this Congress cannot get us out of the automatic increases in entitlements, another can. It may require replacing every single Senator, Member of Congress, the President and Vice President, and every senior civil servant in Washington, but it is possible simply not to fund “non-discretionary entitlements” . The Constitution is very clear: tax and revenue bills have to originate in the House, and “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”" (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

Words and phrases such as entitlements, discretionary vs. non-discretionary funding, and the like, obscure the truth Dr. Pournelle reminds us of: that no Congress can bind a future one.

7/28

re: "Fort Hood massacre nothing more than “workplace violence” per DoD"

McQ at Blackfive ("the paratrooper of love") disagrees with the premise.

Money quote(s):

"What happened at Ft. Hood wasn’t a case of “workplace violence”, it was a case of a radicalized Islamist going on a murderous rampage because of his radicalization. It was also a total failure of leaders to recognize the threat and act on it well before it ended in the death of 13 at the Texas military installation.

Why facing up to this seems to be such a chore for DoD and this administration remains the mystery."

Integrity. I'm sure that's a word that comes up at various times during the professional education of our top military leaders. That and oldies (but goodies) like "Loyalty Upwards and Downwards" and "Men first, Mission Always."


12/7

re: "Fort Hood jihad victims seek $750 million in compensation from the Army"

Robert at Jihad Watch ("dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology plays in the modern world, and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts") relayed news of an administrative claim.

Money quote(s):

"(I)t was willful negligence: many people knew that Hasan was a jihadi, but political correctness and fear kept them from doing anything about him."

Read the whole thing.

11/10

re: "Fort Hood jihad murderer's trial: "People will want to hear the other side during the court-martial, but what could he possibly say in his defe"

Robert at Jihad Watch ("dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology plays in the modern world, and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts") urged letting this defendent testify on his own behalf.

Money quote(s):

"Let the world hear him preach Islam and jihad and explain that that was why he murdered thirteen people in cold blood. Let the world see a jihadist justifying his actions."

That would almost certainly qualify as educational television.

7/10

re: "MAJOR NIDAL HASAN AND THE FORT HOOD TRAGEDY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE U.S. ARMED FORCES"

Clint Watts at the Foreign Policy Research Institute ("Putting Ideas in Service to Our Nation since 1955") posted a very useful bulletin at FPRI.

Read the whole thing.


(6/27)

re: "RAF Trainer Is Muslim Convert"

Mr. E. Blogger at The Jawa Report ("Sand people, get it?") spotlighted an interesting British character.

Money quote(s):

"A Royal Air Force training college dean, Dr. Joel Hayward, is a Muslim convert who has criticized NATO efforts in Libya, likened Winston Churchill to Mohammad, asserted that fewer Jews were killed by the Nazis than generally thought and said Holocaust gas chambers were British propaganda.

Needless to say, Hayward engenders concern and suspicion on the part of RAF colleagues. He has been dubbed the "Air Force Ayatollah." "

Likening "Winston Churchill to Mohammad"?

(In "a nice way," one presumes.)

"Dr. Hayward reminds me of the alleged Fort Hood shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan."

There are some particulars in the Jawa Report post excerpted from the Mail (U.K.) article that make this less implausible than it might otherwise seem.

(8/9)

re: "Breaking: Major Hassan, Fort Hood Jihadi Shooter, Will Be Tried By Court Martial, Will Be Eligible for Death Penalty"

Ace at Ace of Spades HQ had this good news.

Commenting on the expense of a death-penalty case, he observed:

"(L)ike a Jaguar, it's worth every penny."

re: "Now It Is Up To Us To Arrange The Meeting...."

Deebow at Blackfive ("the paratrooper of love") has some harsh words for MAJ Hasan's chain-of-command.

Money quote(s):

"The US Army needs to make an example of this guy for what he has done, and show the world that this is how we deal with those that commit these kinds of acts, but I will reiterate, I hope that the chain of command that was supervising this guy has some giant rubber stamp across each of their service records saying in 2" block letters NON-PROMOTABLE. They are at least 50 percent culpable here because they had a chance to fight at least a fairly serious delaying action in seeing that this guy wasn't promoted, was assigned to someone to be out processed from the US Army, reported to US Army CID, the FBI, and after being tossed out on his ear, placed on a terrorist watch list. But evidently, instead they decided that they didn't want our "diversity" to become a casualty either. Do you think if he was sexually harrassing female colleagues, US Army Civilian office staff or patients that he would have not been taken action against and sent packing by his superiors?"

A generation of political correctness, and (justifiable) fears of career repercussions led directly to this result. While, as a group, I would hesitate long and hard before criticizing the physical courage of army officers, I would hesitate nearly as long before saying anything positive about their moral courage.

And when I finished hesitating I'd note that military officers know a thing or two about strategy, about tactics, about operations. And that these fields apply as much to the non-kinetic realm of Pentagon politics as anywhere else. And that there's such a thing a not fighting battles you know you can't win, deciding which hill it is you want to kill your career on, which sword upon which you wish to fall.

Unfortunately, in the case of MAJ Hasan, a long list of officers made their calculations and decided he wasn't worth it.

And they were wrong.

re: "Magical thinking."

Col. B. Bunny at Eternity Road remarks on the Army's failure regarding MAJ Hasan.

Money quote(s):

"Consider, too, the exquisite irony of Hasan’s performance rating officers being psychiatrists with, supposedly, the professional skills to detect all manner of mental aberration and dissembling. The cowardice, blindness, or dissembling was their own.

The military promotes an internal culture that betrayed our troops by failing to protect them from clear, observable threats. The federal government itself fails in its elemental duty to protect the nation and, in fact, actively undermines its security.

And still the American electorate could not rouse itself to vote in a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. And still the southern border is unsecured. And still there is immigration from Muslim and other third-world countries."

AFP - US 'enemy's' secret weapon? The US passport, some say.

From my archive of press clippings:

AFP

US 'enemy's' secret weapon? The US passport, some say

Fri, May 07, 2010

AFP


US 'enemy's' secret weapon? The US passport, some say


NEW YORK - Islamist militants attacking the United States have a new secret weapon: the US passport.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Everything from hijacked airliners to handguns have featured in attacks on US soil over the last decade. Maybe the slim, blue booklet labeled PASSPORT, and decorated in gold with an eagle, should be added to that list.

Certainly US passports allow militants to infiltrate the country in a way no foreign jihadist could ever match. And if a militant is caught, he gets the same legal protections as everyone else in the country he was trying to fight."

"Border controls have been severely tightened since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

"So few disagree that a US passport might be valuable. It's also true that the number of citizens involved in terrorist incidents is steadily growing.
Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the failed Times Square car bomb, entered the United States on a student visa a decade ago and was granted citizenship in 2009.

US Army Major Nidal Hasan, a devout Muslim disturbed by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, gunned down 13 people and wounded 42 last November at the Fort Hood, Texas army base where he served.

Just a week ago a New York man, Sabirhan Hasanoff, was charged with helping Al-Qaeda.

Tellingly, this US citizen is accused by prosecutors, in part, of urging another citizen "not to use his US passport when traveling because a US passport with fewer immigration stamps would be more valuable to Al-Qaeda." "

"At issue is the question of what it means to be a citizen of one of the most open countries in the world - a country built on welcoming newcomers.

Some are using the fear of terrorism to push for a clampdown on the millions of illegal immigrants working and living productively here, often for years.

Proposals to grant those illegal immigrants amnesty "will legalize more terrorists," writes the right-wing Human Events."

&

"The left-leaning New York Times warns that undermining the inalienable rights of citizenship means entering "dark territory." "

re: "Military must trash jihad coverup policy"

Crush at Blackfive is much vexed by pointless political correctness in the military.

Money quote(s):

"One of the things helping jihadists attack this country the most could be the policy Obama signed last year forbidding our military from mentioning jihad, Islam, or any such terms that could anger our enemies. Granted, this nonsense started under the Bush administration. But when it comes to our national security, which is government’s primary responsibility, it doesn’t matter who is to blame. What matters is that we fix it."

"When a non-Muslim commits a violent act, such as the man who killed the abortion doctor “Tiller the killer,” journalists pass along everything there is to know about the man. However when the perpetrator happens to be Muslim, and especially when the crime is an act of jihad, we don’t see a name or any religious connection until the last few paragraphs – if they are reported at all.

Why is this right? What kind of Mickey Mouse leadership stands by while Maj. Hasan spouts his jihadist rhetoric for years before murdering 14 innocent Americans, then says they have no freaking clue as to the alleged assailant’s motivations? And then has the audacity to warn of anti-Muslim backlash rather than have soldiers be on the lookout for other jihadists in the ranks. And then has the audacity to say that the loss of the Army’s “diversity” would be a greater “tragedy” than the 14 Americans that Hasan murdered.

Let’s not “jump to conclusions” my ass, Army! How about let’s not jump FROM conclusions."

&

"Regardless what our Commander-in-Chief thinks, the U.S. military is not there to soothe the feelings of our enemies, or to become a proving ground of diversity. The military is there to deter our enemies from attacking us. When all else fails, the military KILLS our enemies. And while the forces on the ground have been working miracles, our leadership has been undermining their work at home with asinine policies that prevent us from looking into religion or ideology."