Prattle
Robert Wright, in the New York Times, writes that conservative writers like Charles Krauthammer and Jonah Goldberg are right that the liberal media are trying to cover up Hasan’s crimes by dismissing them as a mere medical issue.
An important admonition, and the only one that explains the lunatic concepts of pre-traumatic stress disorder or second hand flashbacks.
But then Wright concludes that the whole thing is conservativism’s fault, because the right’s pro-military approach to fighting terrorism is what brought us to this.
Re-writing history that would be obviously corrected by the simple act of Googling, Wright says “The American right and left reacted to 9/11 differently. Their respective responses were, to oversimplify a bit: ‘kill the terrorists’ and ‘kill the terrorism meme.’” Perhaps that was the oversimplified bit among his circle of friends, but the Czar recollects that President Bush had a record-high approval rating of 90+ percent when he advocating killing the terrorists…and not their “meme” (a word used by people who are trying to sound hip, and really do not understand what a meme is).
He more than oversimplifies, if his Latin is good enough to translate reductio ad absurdum.
Wright is obviously a liberal—defined not by his position on terrorism, but on his fantasy notion that Hasan must have been created by someone or something. A monster like Hasan cannot come from nowhere: he must be a reaction to something. For liberals, there must be meaning, closure, and feeling.
A monster like Hasan cannot come from nowhere: he must be a reaction to something. For liberals, there must be meaning, closure, and feeling.Wright cannot conceive that a thing like Hasan can simply occur of his own accord and free will; Hasan, in fact, could just happen. A man could wake up one morning and decide that he wanted to follow a dangerous, violent path, and that he could easily select a soft target to carry out a murderous rampage. This cannot be for a liberal: he must have been influenced by the seductive talk of war, of guns, or violence. There must be a root cause for senselessness, and perhaps we could find it if we just think hard enough. No matter how stretched the theory is, the theory is better than the alternative.
Another revealing pot shot: “Contrary to right-wing stereotype, Islam isn’t an intrinsically belligerent religion.” And a delicious left-wing stereotype that right wingers would have such a stereotype. As they might say in Wikipedia…cite? Wright adds that the more right-wingers view Islam as violent, the more Islam turns violent. This backwards post hoc ergo propter hoc fair farting shows how unstable and weak Wright’s position is.
Wright concludes that bin Laden would have viewed September 11th as a minor victory: maybe bin Laden feels the real victory is in drawing Americans into Iraq and Afghanistan.
Why not just ask him what his feelings are. Bin Laden made it quite clear in a series of video and audio recordings: he wants all non-muslims and non-radical followers dead, and he has empowered armies of people to do it…people that our military is now killing before they kill us. Wright can fantasize all he wants about treating terrorists peacefully—which is ultimately what he is unwittingly arguing for—but he is ultimately begging to be spared when it is his turn.
And it makes no difference if the killer is a Muslim or not. He could simply be committing an act of war under orders of someone else, which is how Hasan is being assessed, how he was taken down, and how we will continue to face future threats. Wright needs to mature quite a bit in his assessment of what makes people do violent tasks.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.