Jihadists Gotta Work Too

The federal government enjoys bragging that their efforts to sexually assault our children and grandmothers at airports, tap our phones, pull our library records, indefinitely detain us without charges, snoop through our homes without warrants, and assassinate us without trial have been successful in that there "hasn't been a terrorist attack on American soil since 9-11."  Even for this simple claim, however, it's apparent that the government has had to cook the books as it often does.

For instance, you may recall the 2009 Fort Hood shootings wherein Major Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu Ackbar!" ("God is Great" in Arabic) and opened fire on soldiers at the Soldier Readiness Processing Center on base, killing 13 and wounding 29.  The Defense Department has classified the incident as "workplace violence" not terrorism.

This may come as a surprise to radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  Awlaki had corresponded with Hasan via email, bragged about influencing him and declared him a hero to the terrorist cause after the shooting.  In September, President Obama blew Awlaki's ass up with a Predator drone, which seems like a bit of overkill if Awlaki was merely fomenting "workplace violence."

The classification was so absurd that even Senator Susan Collins (RINO-Maine) "blasted the Defense Department for classifying the Fort Hood massacre as workplace violence and suggested political correctness is being placed above the security of the nation's Armed Forces at home." (According to a Fox News report.)  If Susan Collins thinks something is dumb, it must be really, really dumb.

Hangdog Senator Joe Lieberman (I[mostly D]-Connecticut), who sits on the Senate Homeland Security Committee has said, "The stark reality is that the American service member is increasingly in the terrorists' scope and not just overseas in a traditional war setting."  Indeed several plots to kill service members in America have thankfully been foiled.

One plot that was NOT thwarted was in Little Rock Arkansas.  In 2009 two Army privates, both recent basic training graduates, were shot outside an Arkansas recruitment center by a gunman in a passing vehicle. One of the soldiers was killed and one was wounded.  The shooter pleaded guilty and proudly declared that he carried out the attack on behalf of al Qaeda in Yemen.  The Defense Department has classified the incident as "car trouble."  Okay, they didn't.  But the incident has been treated like just another gang-banger drive-by shooting, not terrorism.

Testifying before Congress, the grieving father of Pvt. William Andrew Long, the soldier killed in Little Rock, put it poignantly:  "My faith in government is diminished. It invents euphemisms ... Little Rock is a drive by and Fort Hood is just workplace violence. The truth is denied."

As a small government constitutionalist and civil libertarian, I've got a lot of problems with the so-called "War on Terror."  But I've also got a big problem with slimy, weasel-worded politicians, such as the ones in the current administration, that can call Tea Party activists "terrorists" but can't bring themselves to use the term against actual Islamic jihadists shooting the shit out of our brave service members.  Such people shouldn't be in command.  Screw 'em!