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defrogPeople have been asking me why I don’t write 50 pages on the Ft Hood shootings and subsequent “OMG Teh Terrorz ar back!!!” meme sweeping the Interwub.
Well, because I don’t have all the free time that Michelle Malkin does, for one thing. Plus, she gets paid to do that.
But so many of my conservative friends really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really REALLY want MAJ Hasan’s Muslimness to be at the center of the entire Ft Hood discussion. Because that makes this mass shooting “terrorism” in the same way that every other mass shooting in the US is NOT terrorism.
Plus, there’s this “political correctness” meme that seems to have popped up at least partly so conservatives can have a way to blame all this on Obama somehow. As in: “All the clues were there, but the FBI and the Army ignored them because they didn’t want offend the Muslims! Well maybe if we’d had the backbone to offend them, those poor people would all be alive now! Why isn’t Obama calling a spade a spade? Why is General Casey worried about offending Muslims in the ranks by calling it terrorism? Doesn’t he CARE about his own soldiers?”
So now I’ve got to sit down and bang this sucker out for therapeutical value. Lucky you.
As a peacetime combat veteran, I suspect one reason Casey is doing what he’s doing is that the Army is very big on teamwork. That involves a pretty big level of trust. That’s why they spend a certain amount of time in Basic Training explaining to you that racism is bullshit and we all bleed red in a war zone, and if you can’t trust the guy next to you in a firefight because of his skin color or religious beliefs, you are useless like the buffalo.
As such, I imagine the last thing Casey wants is to undo that training – especially when we’re still at war, which is no time to be thinning out the ranks anyway. And we’ve already learned the hard way that, as military strategies go, marginalizing Muslims is a counterproductive idea.
Outside of the military context, the “political correctness” thing basically pits a desire not to alienate the overall Muslim community (whose goodwill was basically squandered throughout the Bush years when we really could have used it) against the apparent desire to seriously alienate them and fuck ‘em if they don’t like it because we’re trying to save American lives here and that’s way more important than yr stupid hurt feelings.
To be fair, some of the people on the “fuck ‘em” side tell me it’s not that they hate Muslims – they just think that trying to be nice to all of them enables the really bad ones to get away with murder. Of course, the evidence suggests that’s far from true, but even if it is, the implication is that the only way to stop the violent radicals is to regard all Muslims as potential terrorists (or terror-symps) until proven otherwise.
Which is something I refuse to endorse, and not because it encourages the kind of Big Dumb Fear that leads to Marines clubbing Greek Orthodox priests with tire irons.
For one thing, the “Islam = Probably Terrorism” meme is fabulous al Qaeda recruiting material we don’t need. Even more importantly, it means you inevitably get lumped into the same company as Dave “I Know Where They Hid The WMD” Gaubatz and – even worse – Pat Robertson, who has decided that Islam isn’t actually a religion but a fascist political group. Which means we can legally kill them without violating their stupid First Amendment rights. Or something.
Count me out. I have my reputation to think of, after all.
Of course, taking the side of political correctness means having Dr Phil in yr corner.
See? This is why I try to avoid politics nowadays.
Don’t believe the hype,
This is dF
Well, because I don’t have all the free time that Michelle Malkin does, for one thing. Plus, she gets paid to do that.
But so many of my conservative friends really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really REALLY want MAJ Hasan’s Muslimness to be at the center of the entire Ft Hood discussion. Because that makes this mass shooting “terrorism” in the same way that every other mass shooting in the US is NOT terrorism.
Plus, there’s this “political correctness” meme that seems to have popped up at least partly so conservatives can have a way to blame all this on Obama somehow. As in: “All the clues were there, but the FBI and the Army ignored them because they didn’t want offend the Muslims! Well maybe if we’d had the backbone to offend them, those poor people would all be alive now! Why isn’t Obama calling a spade a spade? Why is General Casey worried about offending Muslims in the ranks by calling it terrorism? Doesn’t he CARE about his own soldiers?”
So now I’ve got to sit down and bang this sucker out for therapeutical value. Lucky you.
As a peacetime combat veteran, I suspect one reason Casey is doing what he’s doing is that the Army is very big on teamwork. That involves a pretty big level of trust. That’s why they spend a certain amount of time in Basic Training explaining to you that racism is bullshit and we all bleed red in a war zone, and if you can’t trust the guy next to you in a firefight because of his skin color or religious beliefs, you are useless like the buffalo.
As such, I imagine the last thing Casey wants is to undo that training – especially when we’re still at war, which is no time to be thinning out the ranks anyway. And we’ve already learned the hard way that, as military strategies go, marginalizing Muslims is a counterproductive idea.
Outside of the military context, the “political correctness” thing basically pits a desire not to alienate the overall Muslim community (whose goodwill was basically squandered throughout the Bush years when we really could have used it) against the apparent desire to seriously alienate them and fuck ‘em if they don’t like it because we’re trying to save American lives here and that’s way more important than yr stupid hurt feelings.
To be fair, some of the people on the “fuck ‘em” side tell me it’s not that they hate Muslims – they just think that trying to be nice to all of them enables the really bad ones to get away with murder. Of course, the evidence suggests that’s far from true, but even if it is, the implication is that the only way to stop the violent radicals is to regard all Muslims as potential terrorists (or terror-symps) until proven otherwise.
Which is something I refuse to endorse, and not because it encourages the kind of Big Dumb Fear that leads to Marines clubbing Greek Orthodox priests with tire irons.
For one thing, the “Islam = Probably Terrorism” meme is fabulous al Qaeda recruiting material we don’t need. Even more importantly, it means you inevitably get lumped into the same company as Dave “I Know Where They Hid The WMD” Gaubatz and – even worse – Pat Robertson, who has decided that Islam isn’t actually a religion but a fascist political group. Which means we can legally kill them without violating their stupid First Amendment rights. Or something.
Count me out. I have my reputation to think of, after all.
Of course, taking the side of political correctness means having Dr Phil in yr corner.
See? This is why I try to avoid politics nowadays.
Don’t believe the hype,
This is dF
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no subject
on 2009-11-11 02:17 pm (UTC)He just does not look sturdy enough to handle that kind of thing.
no subject
on 2009-11-12 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-12 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-11 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-12 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-11 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-11 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-12 12:53 am (UTC)