Gen. Casey Strikes Out

G. Murphy Donovan
Where did Gen. Casey get the notion that diversity is more important than national security or the safety of the troops?

As Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) threaten to subpoena the Justice Department and the Department of Defense for information on a domestic terrorist, we might want to review the bidding on Maj. Hasan and the brass at the Pentagon to date Army Gen. George Casey set a new standard for flag officer pandering while making excuses for domestic terror on the Sunday talk circuit last November. On three separate networks, Casey seemed to be more concerned with “diversity” than troop safety. Casey, you may recall, was the field commander in Iraq who, like William Westmoreland before him, was kicked upstairs, in the middle of a war, to be Army Chief of Staff. On that Sunday, Casey was seconded by the White House when the administration cautioned “against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.” So let’s look at those “facts” about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan before we jump.

Hasan is an American citizen of Palestinian descent. He received all of his higher education at taxpayer expense in exchange for a limited tour of duty with the U.S. Army. He is now a middle-aged field grade officer, a doctor, and psychiatrist. He spent most of his military career at the notorious Walter Reed Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., counseling combat veterans. He likes to argue with patients, proselytize them, and passes out copies of the Koran. Off duty, he is fond of donning Islamic garb and patronizing a radical mosque five miles from the capital. He is an outspoken critic of the “war on terror” which he preferred to call the war on Islam – contradicting his commander-in-chief. He is known to have publicly asserted that his first loyalty was to Islam, not America. He, or his namesake, posted defenses of suicide bombers on radical Islamic web sites. He attempted and possibly contacted an iman, a jihad recruiter, linked to al Qaeda. His automobile sported a bumper sticker “Allah is Love!” His bizarre behavior was reported to his superiors to no avail. Other colleagues say they kept silent out of fears that any criticism of Hasan would violate unwritten Army rules of political correctness.

Army brass “kicked the can” and transferred Hasan to Fort Hood, Texas where he received orders for his first overseas deployment. In protest, he claimed that he could not kill other Muslims; yet, he apparently had no problem murdering kaffirs (unbelievers). On November 5th,he shot and killed 13 unarmed fellow soldiers, including a pregnant mother, and wounded 31 – shouting “Allahu Akbar” in Arabic (God is great) as the massacre progressed.

Consider those facts; but let’s not jump to any conclusions. While you’re at it, consider the litany of false narratives that have followed yet another mass killing in the name of “Allah.” First was the characterization of Hasan as a victim; a victim of trash talk and having his automobile keyed, surely a racist slur. Then there was the post traumatic stress defense (PTSD). When it was revealed that Hasan had never been deployed anywhere near combat; apologists suggested he was stressed by the stress of his patients, stress by association if you will. And then the “lone wolf” defense appeared where solo actors apparently have immunity from being characterized as terrorists.

Consider also the facts in the unclassified Global Terrorism Database (GTD) maintained under federal contract at the University of Maryland which now contains the gory details of over 80,000 terrorist “incidents;” yes that number is 80,000 worldwide since 1970. Also consider the unclassified data base maintained by U.S. State Department, Country Reports on Terrorism, which tracks annual casualty figures from terror. Those casualties have grown by a factor of 15 since tracking began. In 2008 alone nearly 60,000 were kidnapped, killed, or injured worldwide.

And before we jump to any conclusions, we, like Sens. Lieberman and Collins, need the answers to some questions. How did Casey get to be a general? Where did he get the notion that diversity is more important than national security or the safety of the troops? How did Nadal Malik Hasan get a commission in the U.S. Army? Who thought he should be promoted to a field grade? How does the Army get to play “kick the can” or “pass the buck” with dangerous incompetents? And finally, how much longer do we ignore what Islamists and terrorists so obviously have in common?

Consider all of this before you come to any conclusions. And then add the Fort Hood slaughter to the data bases, those reservoirs of facts we are so keen to keep – and ignore. And then make the number of atrocities we are willing to tolerate, or excuse, eighty thousand and one.

Gen. George Casey repeated a mantra as he made the rounds last November; “If our diversity becomes a casualty (of the Fort Hood massacre) then that’s worse.” Worse than what, General? We want to know what in the warped world of political correctness is worse than putting a bullet through an innocent pregnant girl and 43 of her innocent fellow soldiers.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor G. Murphy Donovan is a former Intelligence officer, former senior research fellow at RAND Corp, and former Director Research and Russian Studies, ACS/I, HQ USAF. His work has appeared in numerous strategic and Intelligence journals. He frequently writes about journalistic agnotology at Jenkins Hill on Blogspot. He is a veteran with 25 years of military service.