Bradley Harrington: The P.C. crowd: Blood on their hands

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."

— Will Rogers, "Saturday Review," 1962

You'd just about have to be living in a cave not to have heard the news of Nov. 5: "A gunman opened fire on a soldier processing center at Fort Hood, killing at least 12 people and also wounding dozens of others." (CNN, Nov. 6). The final count is now at 13 dead and 31 wounded.

In the last few days, several facts about the American-born gunman-a Muslim radical by the name of Nidal Malik Hasan have emerged, to wit:

(1) As he stood up and began shooting, Hasan shouted "Allahu akbar" (Arabic for "God is great"); Pvt. Joseph Foster, who was sitting near to Hasan just prior to the attack and was subsequently shot in the hip, reported that "I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up and yelled 'Allahu akbar' in Arabic and he opened fire." (CNN, Nov. 9).

(2) Hasan had known strong ties to radical Shariah-style Muslim fomenters: "Hasan attended one of the most virulently Shariah-adherent mosques in America, Fairfax County's Dar al-Hijrah, Islamic Center. He publicly expressed admiration for its one-time Imam, Anwar Al-Awlaki-an exponent of jihad associated with two of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." (Washington Times, Nov. 10).

(3) Hasan was known to have repeatedly used the Internet to express his admiration for Islamic jihad: "His name appears above radical Internet postings praising Islamic suicide bombers," and he had said at the time of the Arkansas Army recruiting center soldier shooting death back in June that "Muslims should strap on suicide bombs and detonate them in Times Square." (Timesonline, Nov. 7.)

(4) Much of the above, and more, became known to the U.S. intelligence community long before Hasan ever shot up the Fort Hood processing center: "U.S. Intelligence officials have stated publicly that Hasan had attempted to contact Al Qaeda operatives." (Examiner.com, Nov. 10).

So, how is it that this murderous fanatic managed to slip through all of our so-called "homeland security" nets? And how is it that this terrorist ever got onto the Fort Hood base to begin with?

Well, that last question is easy enough to answer: Hasan lived at Fort Hood; his name, you see, is preceded by the title of United States Army Major. How's that for "security"? A rank, it is worth noting, that he was promoted to after poor performance reviews at his internship at Walter Reed — where, his classmates are now reporting, he was fond of spouting off that "I'm Muslim first, American second." (Fox News, Nov. 10). And, for the final corker, what field was Hasan interning in? Psychiatry.

What on earth could possibly possess our armed forces, or our "intelligence" community, to not just ignore, but to actually perpetrate and reward what can only be described as sheer lunacy? The desire, burning so brightly in the breasts of the multicultural politically correct crowd, to not offend anybody.

I wonder how all of those P.C. morons are feeling now, after the 13 bodies of real U.S. soldiers have been lowered into their graves? Do you think they are adjusting their views in the wake of yet another fine example of the "culture" of Islam? Don't count on it. But, just as surely as the oak tree sprouts from the acorn, the tragic deaths of those brave men and women is blood on their hands.

Have we gone so far into cultural and intellectual bankruptcy that we would sacrifice the lives of true and honest patriots in the name of not antagonizing terrorists, killers and thugs? One could hardly suppose that to be so-yet those patriots' graves are real, not figments of our imaginations. But dead bodies and spilled blood is all that the creeds of Islam and sacrifice will ever achieve.

President Barack Obama, in his speech during the Fort Hood memorial service, stated that "This is a time of war. Yet these Americans did not die on a foreign field of battle." No, they died right here in America, as immolation fodder for a cultural policy of anti-man, anti-life, anti-American insanity — and the crosses that rise above those 13 graves are clear pointers to the true enemy: anybody who would trash the values of liberty and individualism for the sake of getting along with blood-thirsty savages who merit nothing but obliteration.

Bradley Harrington is a former Marine and a freelance writer who lives in Cheyenne, Wyo.