Roger Kimball asks: “Will the soldiers whom Hasan killed or injured in this latest terrorist assault receive the Purple Heart?” Well, they should, as he points out, because they were killed in the line of duty by a jihadist who told us hewas on a mission from God to attack American troops. Kimball observes:
It’s tricky for Obama. His administration is devoted to transforming the jihadist war against the West into a civilian conflict. Hence the heavy odor of political correctness that has hung about Fort. Hood since November 5 when Maj. Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” and opened fire.
Perhaps the most nauseating PC emission came from General George Casey, the army’s top officer, who told CNN that he was “concerned” that “speculation” about Maj. Hasan’s motivation in mowing down those 40-odd people at Ft. Hood “could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers.”
So we are being tested, once again, to see whether we can shake ourselves from the slumber and the natural inclination to minimize, avoid, and ignore the looming face of monstrous evil that threatens not only individual Americans but also Western civilization. That’s what is at stake here and what the Obama administration is at pains to conceal. It makes them nervous, it disrupts their kumbaya internationalist view, and it would summon them to put away childish stunts (e.g., moving KSM to New York, closing Guantanamo, purging “Islamic fundamentalism” from their vocabulary) in favor of a robust policy of national security that is commensurate with the threat we face.
As Kimball notes, Obama insisted on calling the massacre “incomprehensible,” a telling word that describes perhaps the intellectual confusion now gripping much of the chattering class. Kimball observes, “Until we are willing to face up to that truth, we will not be able to defend ourselves effectively.” So far, we’re off to a poor start.