The Shootings at Fort Hood

I can't add too much more to what has already been floated around the blogosphere; the courage of SGT Kimberly Munley in taking down MAJ Hasan; the quick reaction and disregard for personal safety exhibited by the soldiers at the SRP site, etc...

There is no worse tragedy than to bear an attack from within your own ranks. It is treachery of the highest order and no circle of hell is enough punishment for Major Hasan.

But three things stick out in the aftermath: Obama's initial television appearance after the shootings, the inability of mainstream media to cover a story without looking ridiculous and irrelevant, and the inability of mainstream media to act as a fair and impartial reporting organization.

Obama spoke about the shootings at a Native American Tribal conference. Nothing wrong with that so far, but prior to his somber reflections, he was yucking it up. Not classy Barry....not classy at all.

I only get Fox and CNN in my current hotel room, so my lens is through those two questionable outlets. In the zeal to 'stay on top of the story', CNN filled the dead air with every available hack and mouthpiece they could dig up. They at one point had on Dr Phil. Dr Fucking Phil.......disgusting.

Fox's rampant chest thumping racism and jingoism was on full display as they featured notable loons like Ralph Peters who stated that the tragedy was “the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11… It was committed by a Muslim fanatic.” Even though there is little to no evidence at this time that Hasan held any extremist views, nor that his faith was central to his rampage. It may come out that those views are indeed the case, but the rush to judgment in the face of nonexistent evidence is a sign of stupidity. He followed that with “Our president tells us not to rush to judgment, to wait until all the facts are in. What facts are we waiting for? This was an Islamist terrorist act… We knew he was an Islamist. The military did nothing about it, out of political correctness. So, Bill [O'Reilly], what am I missing?”

Thanks Ralph...you're a true beacon intellectualism......

Next, disgracing the service and ultimate sacrifice of Muslim soldiers, Fox News's Brian Kilmeade [speaking to Geraldo Rivera] opens his pie hole with a sterling gem: "Do you think it's time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim Army officers -- anybody enlisted? Because if I'm going to be deployed in a foxhole, if I'm going to be sticking in an outpost, I got to know the guy next to me is not going to want to kill me." This is from the "We Report, You Decide" crowd.

So while I guess I shouldn't expect anything less from the Infotainment whores who soil our television screens, I would much rather they keep their unsolicited opinions to themselves until the facts are known. Report the event and the facts, not the theories.

Ironically, Fox's Brian Kilmeade did have Pat Brown, a professional criminal profiler, who took a decidedly non-emotional, anti-knee jerk reaction to the motives of Hasan:

Kilmeade: It seems to me, Pat, religion plays a role. He perhaps was on a different mission.

Brown: Well, Brian, actually, I think religion does not play a role in this. What we're actually looking at is a typical mass murderer.

Mass murderers are either two age groups. They are either teenagers, who are disgruntled with where they are in life, and don't think they're going to be anything -- those teenagers that say 'I'm being bullied and nobody likes me, and so let me take everybody out -- or they're middle-aged men who are going downhill in life -- they're having problems with people, personality issues, you know, going up against authority. For whatever reasons, they're failing, and then when they start failing they have to find something to hang their hat on, they have to blame something.

So he happened to pick what he picked. But I don't think it really has anything to do with him being Muslim or any kind of "jihad." I think he just wanted to kill people and this was his excuse.

Kilmeade: Well, he did yell out, "Allah," that's kind of an odd thing to yell out for somebody who was just unhappy with his success in life.

Brown: But he was already going downhill. He's a psychopath, and that -- he's gonna say something. Link