Yes, it WAS Terrorism
1st Cavalary Division Patch
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Noah Schachtman at Wired found this today:
Before he allegedly killed a dozen and wounded 31 more at Ft. Hood, Maj. Nidal Hasan may have gone online to praise suicide bombers.
“If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory,” a commenter named “NidalHasan” wrote on this Scribd.com document about “Martydom in Islam.”
The comments — and others like them — drew the interest of federal law enforcement authorities, they tell the Associated Press’ Lara Jakes. An official investigation was never opened. But they did begin to pay attention to Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Iraq.
The full comment at Scribd is as follows:
NidalHasanscribbled: There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that "IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE" and Allah (SWT) knows best.
Now, I would grant the possibility that this was a mentally ill person, and his actions no doubt prove he is deranged. Was he a radical, bent on killing for some purpose, such as, making a political statement? There is evidence that Hasan did not want to go to Iraq. That may have triggered a reaction to resign his commission or try to get out of the military. Virtually any officer can simply leave the military. It ruins the person to do so, professionally, but they cando it. If Hasan did not want to go to Iraq, then he had more channels open to him to not go than an enlisted soldier. Anyone who wants to get out of the military can do so, provided they are willing to accept the consequences of doing so. If your choices are getting out dishonorably or Iraq, and you're willing to take that hit, then you take that hit. I don't buy the notion that he had to go. He seems to have figured that he had to act to stop others from going.
Hasan wanted to make a political statement, and so he did. There are numerous shopping centers around Fort Hood. There are numerous places where he, as a Major, could have gone. He decided to go for maximum infliction of casualties against Americans serving at Fort Hood, both as members of the military and as civilians working for the Department of Defense.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said military officials told her that the gunman was upset about his impending deployment.
It was unclear where Hasan was to be deployed. Hutchison said it was to be to Iraq, but retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who said he worked with Hasan, told Fox News that Hasan tried hard to prevent his pending deployment to Afghanistan.
Lee said Hasan had hoped President Barack Obama would pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and that he got into frequent arguments with others in the military who supported the wars.
That, to me, supports the idea that this was terrorism--he was not only radicalized but was also openly defiant with his beliefs and speaking out about them. If anyone tries to spin it otherwise, remember--sympathy can sometimes count as much as being organized. While he may not have belonged to an organization, he did believe in a political philosophy at odds with the uniform that he wore. He was radicalized and believed himself "justified" for attacking the institution that was going to send him to Iraq.
For further evidence, there is this tidbit:
Hasan attended prayers regularly when he lived outside Washington, often in his Army uniform, said Faizul Khan, a former imam at a mosque Hasan attended in Silver Spring, Md. He said Hasan was a lifelong Muslim.
"I got the impression that he was a committed soldier," Khan said. He spoke often with Hasan about Hasan's desire for a wife.
On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian, Khan said.
"I don't know why he listed Palestinian," Khan said, "He was not born in Palestine."
Why would he self-identify as a Palestinian if he wasn't one? You have a situation here where he has attacked and killed a great number of people; he has a history of saying that he supports a form of martyrdom; he is known to have wanted to avoid going to Iraq; and now he is self-identifying as someone he is not.
Mentally ill, certainly. And a terrorist to boot.
