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Political Correctness
Is "political correctness" to blame for the Ft. Hood massacre? Did the military fail to confont Nidal Malik Hasan's growing disillusionment with the war because it was afraid of appearing overly critical of Muslims? Marc Lynch pushes back:
This framing of the issue is almost 100% wrong. There is a connection between what these critics are calling "political correctness" and national security, but it runs in the opposite direction. The real linkage is that there is a strong security imperative to prevent the consolidation of a narrative in which America is engaged in a clash of civilizations with Islam, and instead to nurture a narrative in which al-Qaeda and its affiliates represent a marginal fringe to be jointly combatted.
....The grand strategy of al-Qaeda and its affiliated ideologues is, and has always been, to generate a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West which does not currently exist....To make inroads with mainstream Muslim communities, they need to change the context in which they live — to render their status quo unacceptable and to make their narrative resonate. And for that to happen, they need a lot of help — for the targeted governments to take inflammatory measures against their Muslim populations, for the non-Muslim citizens in the targeted countries to discriminate against them, and for the media to fan the flames of hatred and mistrust.
....A lot of people — some well-meaning, some clowns or worse — evidently want the American response to the Ft. Hood shootings to revive the post-9/11 "war of ideas" and "clash of civilizations" anti-Islamic discourse. It's a jihad, they shout, demanding careful scrutiny of the loyalty of American Muslims. That's what they seem to mean by the demand to throw away "political correctness" and confront the ideological menace. The overall effect of their recommendations, however, would be to revive the flagging al-Qaeda brand and to greatly strengthen the appeal of its narrative. And that's exactly what we should not want.
The whole piece is worth a read. The military almost certainly has some lessons to learn from this tragedy — as do the rest of us — but that plural is deliberate. Lessons, not lesson.
Nice Strawman, Lynch
Hasan was emailing Al Qaeda leaders.
Hasan was in contact with an Al-Qaeda-linked Yemeni cleric.
Hasan's powerpoint briefing (see Washington Post) was quite alarming.
This isn't about Islam in general.
It's about an Army Major in contact with the enemy (which is against the law) and nothing was done about it.
The question is why?
Why didn't the FBI and Army do something about Hasan? The answers that the government has given so far are quite pathetic.
Anyone in contact with Al-Qaeda should not be swept under the carpet. Al-Qaeda wants to kill Americans.
Notice how that can be framed without generalizing Islam or Muslims?
I think that's all the author wanted
Sadly, although you have the ability to delineate the two, most of the media voices in the country do not. This leads most of the sheeple to start back down the "brown=bad" road we skirted after 9/11.
Eh?
That -- distinguishing between Islam as such and Al Qaeda and taking care to frame the conflict that way -- was Lynch's point.
a different point of view
Hasan was emailing Inkblot.
Hasan was in contact with an Inkblot-linked Yemeni cleric.
Hasan's powerpoint briefing (see Washington Post) was quite alarming.
This isn't about cats in general.
It's about an Army Major in contact with the enemy (which is against the law) and nothing was done about it.
The question is why?
Why didn't the FBI and Army do something about Hasan? The answers that the government has given so far are quite pathetic.
Anyone in contact with Inkblot should not be swept under the carpet. Inkblot wants to kill Americans.
Notice how that can be framed without generalizing cats or kittens?
Being manly
The more we vilify all Muslims, the more people hate us, and the safer we are. See how that works?
Its likely that the dynamic
Its likely that the dynamic that kept Hasan in the Army had far less to do with political correctness than with the unwillingness of any official to be the one blamed for cutting this guy loose after the Army had spent beaucoup $ on his training over a period of many years.
Maybe, but DADT shows just
Maybe, but DADT shows just the opposite....
No, because you score points
No, because you score points for getting rid of teh gay.
Close, but according to
Close, but according to Daniel Zwerdling this morning, it's more "all the paperwork" involved in getting anyone fired for cause these days, than the resources invested in these guys.
His Walter Reed supervisor(?) wanted him gone not because he was Muslim, but because of his poor performance. Couldn't get rid of him, because it's so hard to get rid of anyone. Just push him along to Ft. Hood.
After 14 years in the army
After 14 years in the army did he really have no way to simply resign?
Umm no. Poorly reasoned and
Umm no. Poorly reasoned and rife with strawman arguments. Who exactly is demanding careful scrutiny of Muslim's loyalty? One or two unimportant pundits here and there I guess? Anyone in power? Didn't think so. How about just.. I don't know.. asking the guy a couple extra questions if he's giving a medical presentation on submission to Islam and how to behead unbelievers. Would that have been so hard? If a fear of offending some undefined group of Muslim Americans prevented that, then that's pretty scandalous and worthy of critique. Pretty typical that Drum would pass this drivel along without thinking about it though.
Dude, have you read the
Dude, have you read the Corner at all recently (I don't recommend it). They're full throated about doing just that. They may not be in power, but what's written there has significant influence on thought leaders in the party and people in positions of power.
Some portion of the
Some portion of the conservative movement has always needed domestic enemies for both its internal narrative and its electoral prospects. American Muslims are this generation of right wingers' communist subversives.
Would not the logical
Would not the logical conclusion of Kaplan's "thinking" be conscription? How can Americans avoid becoming decadent if only a fraction of 1% are in the armed forces and involved in our great collective effort.
Since nutters will never advocate for the draft, then shouldn't he support a massive reduction in American defense spending and a curbing of our military commitments so those damn Euros can not get a free ride on us?
Some portion of the
Some portion of the conservative movement has always needed domestic enemies for both its narrative and electoral prospects. American Muslims are the new communist subversives for this generation's McCarthites.
When to pull the plug?
Whenever you find someone trying to contact an enemy you create a predicament for the investigators. Do you immediately swoop in, or do you exploit the situation to gather intelligence on your enemies? The longer you wait, the greater the danger that the suspect might commit a deadly act. But, if you spring to early, you cut off the chance to find out about -and perhaps catch the bigger fish. So this may not have been about political correctness, it may have been a tactical investigative decision gone wrong.
Oops
You're assuming that his decisions were influenced by activists for the terrorist cause, aren't you ? Perhaps he was associating with these folks because what they were saying resonated with what he was already feeling. Or perhaps I misunderstand your point.
who's learning
I think if you take an honest look at what's happening, the military is about the only entity reacting in a responsible way to this incident.
It's about an Army Major in
Because of political correctness. The army was busy making excuses for him so as not to undermine diversity, just like the liberal commenters.
Attempts to defend political correctness with pathetic excuses, like Mayor Daley's predictable diatribe against guns, are laughable. If liberals prefer diversity to national security, they should stick up for their beliefs instead of putting spin on the obvious. Sort of reminds me of when John Gacy wrote to prosecutor William Kunkle that he should only have been convicted of keeping a cemetery without a license. Anything to mitigate the truth.
Yes, I was just exhausted
from the act of being polite
Invade the World v. Invite the World
In terms of domestic terrorism, the tradeoff between the grand strategies of the Bush-Obama Era -- Invite the World / Invade the World -- is obvious.
If you want to run an ambitious foreign policy, such as Britain did in the 19th Century, then it’s prudent to keep out the foreigners you have aggrieved, as Victorian England sensibly did. In contrast, if you let in millions of immigrants, as 19th Century America did, it’s wisest to run an isolationist foreign policy, so that immigrants aren’t angry at you. America mostly did this in the century after George Washington advised it.
Or, most prudently of all, our country could refrain from pestering foreigners while not letting them pester us.
Of course, the one alternative out of four that’s self-evidently self-defeating—Invite / Invade— is considered the only respectable one. In the eyes of, say, the Washington Post or the Wall Street Journal, all the alternatives to Invite / Invade are simply unthinkable. Thus, our country’s grand strategies are, literally, thoughtless. We must bomb foreigners overseas until they start liking us more.
Meanwhile, at home we aren’t allowed to notice that some of their co-religionists in the United States are liking us less. Discerning is discriminating. Discriminating is bad. Our thoughts must be utterly indiscriminate!
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