The Fort Hood Massacre has brought out arguments that "MAJ Hasan is no more a terrorist than were the Beltway Snipers." I will agree with the statement on grounds that John Allen Muhammed is a terrorist. In fact I didn't realize that this status was even in question in anyone's mind.
There is absolutely no definition of terrorism that does not include John Allen Muhammed and Lee Malvo as terrorists. Contrary to early FBI conclusions, it is appearing more and more like MAJ Hasan also must be considered a terrorist, rather than a run of the mill mass murderer. He acted in accordance with an earlier foiled plot that would have targeted FT Dix.
If there is any doubt in your mind that the Beltway Snipers were acting as terrorists, please review the evidence presented by Michelle Malkin, the handwritten notes and drawings by Lee Malvo himself. One may question whether racism or islamism were the greater motivation of the "artist," but he makes very clear that his goal was political and terroristic in nature.
Home grown terrorists are a goal of the Al-Qaeda/Islamist Internet Propaganda Machine. It seeks precisely these type of "independent," "lone wolf," type actions. The fact that MAJ Hasan was an avid follower of an islamist firebrand who also preached to 3 of the 9/11 terrorists and to MAJ Hasan in 2001 increases the evidence for the case that he was acting in concert with islamist terrorism.
Other home grown terrorists include Timothy McVeigh, the Abortion Clinic Bomber, the Recruiting Station Shooter, the Unabomber, the Weather Underground, the at-large bomber of NY City embassies/consulates/recruiting station, the at-large anthrax mailer, and members of ALF & ELF (environmental terrorists).
Terrorism is not defined by racism, though it often has a racist component. It is not defined by nationality. It is not defined by alignment with left or right wing ideologies, though extremes of both are often found in its motivations. It is not defined by religion or lack thereof, though that too often plays into motivations. Terrorism is defined by the goal of the action and by the target of the action. Motivations and ideology are components which determine the difference between psychotic murderers and terrorists.
But putting our collective heads in the sand to avoid reality that Islamism pushes heretical Muslims under the banner of Islam to commit terrorism is a truly dangerous approach to political correctness. Until those that are entrusted with leading this Nation and its defenses are willing to accept that Islamism is the enemy, to recognize that it is not Islam that causes Muslims to commit terrorism, that there is a difference, until we as a Nation recognize who the enemy is, we cannot be expected to effectively fight the enemy.
Political Correctness is literally killing Our Citizens. It is no longer a simple nuisance that Veterans and Grandmas are randomly searched at airports in order to allow TSA to also search potential islamist terrorists. Political Correctness is preventing the identification and investigation of Islamists that make statements that would identify them as potential threats to Our Citizens.
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