Fort Hood Shooting: Compassion First, Questions Second

The shooter was clearly an Islamic terrorist, and should get the death penalty.

This man is a psychiatrist, which means he had easy access to any psychotropic prescription drugs he wanted. There may not even be a record of his having purchased these, because the pharmaceutical reps hand out their anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medication samples very generously to any doctor they call on. Meanwhile, the drug companies have also built a virtually impregnable firewall around themselves of legal protection from liability, patient testimonials and goodwill advertising. And prosecutors know that this sort of thing is virtually impossible to prove in court anyway, so they don't bother to pursue that line of investigation. In fact, the use of these drugs to deal with simple stress is so prevalent now that it's reasonable to assume that many in law enforcement would be biting the hand that feeds them if they were to start questioning whether these meds can actually drive someone crazy.

Baruch Goldstein was a doctor, too.

Rabbi, what great wisdom, thank you for that.

I read on yahoo news that a classmate of his says Hasan complained that the US war on terror was a war on Islam. In other words he has always been an Islamic extremist and now he is a full-fledged Islamic terrorist.

The 7th head of the beast raises its ugly head again.

I would agree with Rabi, The act is a very heinous one and a very planned act. committing mass murder and shouting God is Great, Not Tolerable!

One can take many perspectives on horrible actions of individuals. The least appropriate is to cast the sins of the criminal on to a whole people united by culture, race or belief. However, the actions of this supposedly educated individual is really no different from that of other terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan or Israel. They are all evil people, who proclaim their right by belief to murder others. In the end, there really is no line between using "belief" as a rational for murder of innocents or some personal insanity. I maintain both are the same; certainly the results are the same. Similarly, the fact that this pathological person was allowed to remain in the company of our soldiers, and the extent of his pathology remained unanswered must be examined. One must also note the lack of outrage my the mainline Islamic community in America and elsewhere, but then there has been remarkably little outrage from that sector for any of the horrid actions in the name of beilef. I suggest to attempt to make this episode just the work of an insane person is to miss the point: are not ALL such actions by others, anywhere, at once criminal and insane.

Rabbi:

I enjoy your writings.....except this one!!! You overlook the dictate to muslims in their Holy Book the Koran to "first kill all Jews and Infidels". I am sure that was not lost on this murderous insult to inhumanity, let him burn in hell!!

Why do we allow in this country people sworn to kill us? And how can you defend in any way what that murderous slime did?

stewart

Where was this man's compassion for his fellow human beings that he murdered? There was none, the only compassion was for himself and his belief that it is okay to to kill because he felt wronged by life, his life was less than he desired...so to feel justified, murder was his solution...it makes no difference to me what his religion is, he is a savage beast who should be shown no compassion. Muslims in general tend to believe murder is acceptable as long as they scream God Is Great while doing it! He did not know God at all or he would have found a real solution to his problems.
I suppose that some would also believe we should show the man in Florida who opened fire Friday compassion as well. But his words to the camera were chilling when asked why he did this...because they left me to rot was his answer...many people get fired and connot draw benefits but they don't use it as an excuse to kill...they move on and find new a job instead of blaming society or fellow workers for their failure to do their job! Compassion is over rated when it comes to killers...they did not show their victims compassion so therefore do not deserve to be shown compassion!

I usually don't read your columns because I disagree with most of your liberal beliefs, but I've been reading as much as I can on this latest American tragedy. I am pleasantly surprise that the posts here have been along the same lines as my thoughts. This was a terrorist attack, plain and simple. This monster used his "religion" as a reason to kill 13 Americans and wound 30 more. Some of the things that have come to light since the massacre all point to the fact that he is a radical Islamist and his first allegiance is to his "allah" and not to the United States of America. In answer to Lee's question, no I do not believe a muslim will ever be loyal to the USA. They are indoctrinated since birth that their "allah" is a supreme being and that they must do whatever it takes to do spread this "religion" and kill all non-believers. That would be the rest of us "infidels." Sorry, Rabbi, but you are way off base here. Then again, I expect nothing less than bleeding heart rhetoric from a liberal Rabbi, which is really sad. How much pain and suffering do we, both Jews and Americans, have to endure at the hands of these barbarians before we wake up. They hate us. They want to kill us. They tell us so every single day. Start listening!

This may not be "politically correct," but here goes... From 9/11 to Ft. Hood, why is anyone even surprised about these atrocities anymore? This is merely the latest chapter in the thousand year old story known as The Crusades, and it's never going to end. Indeed, the worst is yet to come. The United States of America was created as a tolerant country, a Republic of Democracy. Thanksgiving...baseball...Mom...apple pie, shall I go on? Muslims share absolutely none of these values. Quite the contrary, this "religion of peace" instructs their followers to "kill the infidels." The "prophet" Muhammad was a pedophile, and, to this day, beheadings are their "civilized" way of dealing with anyone who opposes their fascist beliefs, beliefs which are forbidden from being challenged. Just wait until the next "fatwa"...

Mr. President, Is It Getting Any Better as the Answers Come In?
President Obama today in the Rose Garden, speaking about the Muslim mass-murderer who killed many more Americans yesterday than were killed by the Muslim mass-murderers who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993: "We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts."

So, at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Steve Emerson marshals some of the answers that have come in about Nidal Malik Hasan: "Born in Virginia, sent to medical school by the U.S. Army, the psychiatrist was chastised for proselytizing to his patients about Islam. Asked his nationality, he didn't identify himself as an American but as a Palestinian. He appeared pleased by the shooting death of a Little Rock Army recruiter in June and reportedly was heard saying, 'maybe people should strap bombs on themselves and go to Times Square.' In the fateful moment before he opened fire on his unarmed victims, he shouted Allahu Akhbar!'"

President Obama has had no problems jumping to conclusions about everything from the stimulus (it was going to keep unemployment below 8 percent) to Honduras (the administration pronounced it a lawless coup when, as the answers came in, it was shown to be the opposite of that). In fact, based on what it acknowledged was no "specific information," his Homeland Security Department concluded that the country was about to experience a surge of violence from "rightwing extremists." I don't know what further answers the president is going to need here, but it seems some pretty obvious conclusions are in order.

By the way, as Steve points out, CAIR has also weighed in. They say ... we don't know all the answers yet and we shouldn't jump to conclusions.

The Islam is teaching to kill the infidels. There was a lot of protesting against the cartoons depicting Allah, but I do not see any demonstrations by the same people against taking lives of American citizens or any other people in many countries around the world in the name of Allah. The killing in the name of Allah will continue.

If(and it looks that way) Muslem idealism is bent on overturnuing US idealism...Muslim idealism must be STOPPED at all cost!

US Citizen John F. Higgins

If most of the readers are Jewish, then most Jews most hate Muslims and "liberal thought." They must all want to persecute Muslims and Arabs. Maybe the Christian missionary who tried to convert me the other day was right, Judaism is the religion of Law and Christianity is the religion of Love. Sure, Judaism has "love" - but strings are attached (the "curse of the Law," as Paul puts it). And I suppose part of the Jewish Law is to assume that all Muslims are hateful, there is no chance that any Muslim could ever be both Muslim and American, and that they are always "Muslim first, American second."

Christianity looks better and better every day, it seems.

Islam is a mortal threat to our civilization.

But we cannot destroy Islam.

Nor can we democratize Islam.

Nor can we assimilate Islam.

Therefore the only way to make ourselves safe from Islam is to separate ourselves from Islam.

What if:
This were Nazi Germany. Up to now the general population has been tolerant of Jews because nothing has happened to break their trust. Jews are everywhere in society, even the military. One day a Jewish psychiatrist, who has been told he is about to be deployed to the Africa Corp, and will be dealing with soldiers fighting and killing Jews in Palestine, and who has already heard stories from soldiers coming back from campaigns in that area who have disparaged the Jewish enemy they are fighting there (hey, this is fiction, so bear with me), decides he has had enough. He loves his country, but loves his religion more, and doesn't want to do what he's told. He deals with other peoples problems, but is so introverted and ashamed about his own dilemma he does not want to talk about it. He takes two hand guns and goes into a room of German soldiers being deployed, shoots as many as he can while shouting "Torah, Torah, Torah".
The German people, having been extremely tolerant up to now, despite having witnessed the heavy loss of life and destruction which occurred several years ago when a band of Jews blew up the stock exchange building, begin to call for some kind of action to be taken. The Jewish community says nothing because, in their hearts, they applaud this man's martyrdom. All Jews are required to wear a star of David on their clothing, privileges are taken away, and they are isolated from society as being too dangerous, and on and on.
You see where I'm going with this. This murder at Fort Hood is the Kristylnacht for the Muslim community of our time. If the Muslim community truly feels persecuted and aggrieved, and feels an affinity towards what this man did at Fort Hood, I would hope to hear them shout from pulpits and soap boxes about these feelings so we can hear the hatred and begin to understand. We have freedom of speech and are not like Germany was. Then we can have a dialogue about problems. Otherwise silence and a wait and see attitude will only result in unpleasant counter measures that I, for one, would not like to see.

It goes without saying that we need to take care of the survivors. However we need to use all of our energy to prevent things like this from happening again. The first order of importance is survival. If lions are killing people, lions should be keep away from humans.

After that has been accomplished we can seek to understand why they attack people.We may learn that a vast majority of lions actually have good intentions and are kind at heart, but until then they should be quarentined.

You might choose to walk into a lions den, but not me. The same with Muslims. "we must fight all efforts to use this tragedy to cast aspersions upon an entire tradition and all of its followers" Here is the danger of political correctness. Would you say the same about the Nazi's or the Klu Klux Klan?

Islam calls for the elimination of the Infidel: either join them or be killed. Don't believe that? Ft. Hood is a wake up call. We need to use all of our efforts to examine the danger that is present among us.

"We must also resist the temptation to extrapolate from this act and the role which faith seemed to play in it, to the effects of that faith in general" America needs to WAKE UP and come to the clear understanding of the role that faith, in this case Islam, played in the events at Ft. Hood.

Pretending it is just an isolated abberation and worruing about offending believers of a religion that calls for your extinction
is a sure way to ensure that it happens.

To Emily with a kippah:
my dear Emily you seem so unsure of your faith and already have developped the perfect self hating Jew aplogist attitude toward islam. Skip the dhimmi stage with Christianity and embrace Islam the true religion of love and peace. Your life will be amazing under your burkha!

The politically correct spin is coming like a tidal wave. He is a crazy guy who happens to be a Muslim. All of that misses the point: he was disloyal to the United States, and said so openly and many times; yet he remained a commissioned officer of the United States. That is the point that is being overlooked. Whether the disloyalty is due to a psychotic episode or some other cause is not important.

The Jihadis will return. We know this, in the same way that we know about death and taxes. Thanks in large part to the weakening of our defensive efforts under the new administration, there will be further attacks against this country's population, perhaps even worse than those of 9/11. (This week's attack by Nidal Malik Hasan serves to underline the threat.)

When this attack occurs, we will see an end to all the nonsense. Our present drift regarding terror policy is occurring only because Americans have been encouraged to put unpleasant realities at a distance, to live in a dream world where all the bad stuff happens to other people. 9/11 has ceased to signify. Terrorism has become a matter of bad manners. As my grandfather might have put it, this country is in for a rude awakening.

When it comes (and sad to say, it will need to be even worse than the Hassan attack) people will want answers and action. They will get both. Few things move faster than a frightened politician, particularly a politician frightened by his own constituents. Fearful pols will see to it that current efforts to undermine American security will come to an abrupt halt. The law enforcement paradigm will be overturned. The attempts to "Mirandize" Islamist terrorists -- to turn them into esoteric versions of American street criminals, protected by the same legal constraints -- will cease. Contingent efforts to criminalize American security officials doing their best to protect the country will be curtailed. All the deeply complex questions fabricated over the past few years will be abruptly simplified.

But there is one thing that will not be addressed: the role of the American left.

The American left is unparalleled at wriggling out of deadly cul-de-sacs of its own creation. Consider how many times since the Vietnam War this country's left has involved itself in activities that in saner epochs would have resulted in lengthy jail sentences. Support for the Sandinistas and the Salvadoran FMLN, the Nuclear Freeze movement (a KGB operation from start to finish), cooperation with Palestinian and related terrorist groups. In each case, the left continued its involvement until the bitter end; and in each case skipped off with no consequences. This offhand attitude toward sedition has its roots in the excesses of the witch-hunt era. The aura of martyrdom donned by the left since the early 50s has bought them a free pass for over half a century.

The myth concerning the left and the terror conflict asserts that American leftists pulled together with the rest of the country until such Republican Saurons as Cheney, Rove, Ashcroft, and their puppet W simply went too far: persecuting innocent citizens, impugning the Constitutional rights of the poor Jihadis, and shocking the world with their viciousness and brutality. As the sole exemplars of moral purity in the millennial world, the left had no choice but to begin "speaking truth to power".

My own experience suggests otherwise. In September 2001 I had a part-time position as copy-editor for a small but well-known national magazine. Within days of 9/11 -- and I mean days; not weeks or months -- while the smoke was still rising, I began receiving copy containing pieces suggesting that the terrorists -- Moussaoui in particular -- were poor, misunderstood victims in need of therapy. That there was far more to the event than appeared -- one short piece contained the first suggestion I saw of what was to become known as the "Truther" movement. But possibly the worst was a call for the assassination of John Ashcroft by one of the magazine's regular writers. Calling the editor's attention to this, I was told that it was not necessarily Ashcroft, since the writer did not mention his full name. (It was "John A.", or something of that sort.)

I simply exploded. I've seen a lot from lefties - we all have. There's no limit to their nastiness, their vindictiveness, their callousness. It's this lack of everyday morality that truly distinguishes them from the mass of Americans. So I shouldn't have been shocked. But I was, and I was not willing to accept it. My main gig at the time was five blocks from the WTC, and hundreds of people I had known in passing were no longer of this earth. My patience for the kind of thing I was seeing was strictly limited.

I wrote a short memo outlining my objections. What I got in reply was a blast of vituperation accusing me of slander, McCarthyism, and promoting censorship. That last was quite true; that's exactly what I was doing. But wartime changes things -- certain activities that are perfectly acceptable in times of peace have to go by the board. Or did (editor's name here) really think that he'd breeze through airport security as usual on his next business trip?

In the midst of the exchange I received further copy. It contained more of the same. I sent it back with an ultimatum. I got more abuse in reply, and so I walked.

That's how it looked from my small corner. No lag time, no hesitation -- left-of-center writers knew what was required of them and produced it. There were similar signs on the wider public stage -- Michael Moore berating the Jihadis for their choice of targets, Some obtuse blurt from Susan Sontag. That nameless pol in San Francisco blaming America first. But much of the left decided the better part of valor lay in keeping their mouths shut -- courage is not a widely-displayed trait in that crowd either.

Of course, it didn't remain that way. First came the niggling over the Patriot Act, followed by Fahrenheit 911, the incisive foreign policy analyses of Ward Churchill, and Cindy Sheehan's assorted campouts. But it was Iraq that proved to be the crack through which the left wriggled back to its accustomed status. Abu Ghraib was the fulcrum by which leftists were able to turn public trust and support of the anti-terror campaign to nagging doubt. Justified shock and disgust at the Abu Ghraib photos was amplified by the media in their expert fashion. Within months, such doubts had expanded to include not only the war effort in Iraq, but the overall conduct of the war against terror. Rarely has the misbehavior of a few malcontent backwoodsmen had such heavy consequences.

Not a single aspect of the U.S. policy was left unaffected. The foreign wiretapping program ("listening in on U.S. citizens"), the bank surveillance effort, the terrorist rendition program, and of course Gitmo, all received the Abu Ghraib treatment. Those images of tormented Iraqi prisoners had a deep and extended impact: if Abu Ghraib could happen, why couldn't all the rest happen too? That quivering sense of doubt was all the left needed to put themselves back in the sedition business big time.

We know where it led to. We have reached the point where successful programs are being abandoned, where national defense has taken a back seat, and where decent men out to protect their homes and fellow citizens are being targeted for legal sanction. The left has gained a shoddy and partial triumph. Though they could not destroy the despised Bush administration or throw away Iraq, they have the consolation prize of shutting down all those evil programs and betraying the people of Afghanistan. No fall of Saigon or Watergate this time around, but they'll make do.

There is only one way this will end: people are going to die. Americans will be killed in large numbers and under the most horrifying circumstances in attacks that could very likely have been prevented. And when this occurs -- as it must -- what will the left do? The same as they did after 9/11. Grab a kid-size American flag from somebody else's hand and stand waving it frantically until the moment of potential retribution is safely past.

What motivates this kind of behavior? The answer lies in the leftist worldview, which is simplicity itself. (It has to be simple, designed as it is to be comprehended by workers, peasants, and college students.) The world is divided into oppressors and victims, with history a dialectical struggle between the two. The oppressor is anyone who holds power, the victims everyone else. By definition, the U.S., as the worlds reigning power, is an oppressor state. In fact, the greatest of all oppressor states, worse than Assyria, worse than Rome, worse than Hitler's Germany, because it has craftily convinced much of the world that it is no such thing.

As for the Jihadis, they are victims in arms -- revolutionaries acting against the imperial state, like the Viet Cong and the Sandinistas before them. Islam, reactionary politics, contempt for women -- none of that matters, as long as they are active against the common enemy. And the role of the Western leftist is to support and assist these heroes, exactly as occurred with all the revolutionary movements in the past. By "speaking out", by "defying authority", and above all by undercutting any efforts to combat the new revolutionary vanguard. But what of the real victims, you ask, all the innocents left scattered like broken, burnt dolls in New York, and Bali, and London, and Madrid? "Little Eichmanns", in the immortal words of the renowned plagiarist, Ward Churchill. Or perhaps you prefer ancient the leftist slogan: "You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

Clearly, American leftists cannot act otherwise. They can never be truly patriotic in the real sense, in the sense of sacrifice and overcoming doubts, of valuing their country as a larger expression of family and neighborhood. To ask that of them is to ask them to give up their higher allegiance, to demand that they stop being leftists, stop being progressives, stop being the world's holy fools. And that is to ask too much.

This is a historically unique situation, a product of the modern temperament. Never before would effective treason by a large minority have been tolerated, particularly involving such crucial sectors as media, academia, and education. This is not a stable condition, and it cannot be maintained for long. There is no reason why it should be.

So how do we respond? We'll pause here to allow the loud cry of "Hang ‘em all!" to roll over us and commend everyone involved for their enthusiasm, if not their prescription. But what we need, though perhaps not as final, is something effective and workable within with contemporary social norms.

The first step is not to buy their story. There is nothing wrong with the fact that we believed the left the first time around -- it involved an unprecedented event. They assured us that 9/11 was different, a good war, the war against reaction, that they could support in good conscience. We were obliged to listen -- they were fellow citizens, after all, those who had died screaming amid flames their friends and acquaintances as well. But now we know it as a lie, one that they will inevitably repeat. So we must turn away. And that can be a problem. Understanding the limitations of human nature, conservatives have a tendency to hand out second chances whether deserved or not. This is commendable under most circumstances, but not these, not when lives are at stake. We yank drunk drivers out of cars; we must also yank leftists out of the public sphere.

The second step is to identify them. Call them out by name, relentlessly and repeatedly. Note how scarcely a day goes by without some (often dozens) of disparaging references to Gov. Palin. The left knows how this is done, how to assure that the public overlooks nothing and forgets nothing. Turnabout is fair play. Again, conservatives tend to be squeamish, to hesitate before pointing fingers. There is no excuse for that here. As the old saying goes: don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

The third step is to target them, isolate them and render them harmless. The question is how we go about it. The left itself may well have put the weapon in our hands. The attacks against Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Rush Limbaugh, among many others, have been so noxious and vicious as to change the way such tactics are currently received. The public has become hardened to such attacks. Much is accepted now that would not have been accepted even a few years ago. We need to take advantage of this. Ask questions, poke around, find out where the bones are buried and use the shovel. The left threw out the rulebook: now they need to pay the consequences. (This is not unprecedented. In fact, it's a historical commonplace. Few are aware that Joe McCarthy was supported by the Communist Party in his Senate run -- the CPUSA loathed his opponent, Robert LaFollette, Jr., as the son of one of their deadliest enemies during the Progressive era. The Tailgunner is supposed to have studied their tactics of bullying and humiliation with interest.)

Van Jones should act as our model. A few years ago, it wouldn't have mattered that Jones was associated with a nut cult like the Truthers. Now everything matters, and everything goes under the microscope. Jones was a critical figure to the administration, one for whom they were willing to put their reputations on the line to save. It made no difference. Once exposed, and hammered, and spotlighted, he was shown the door and wished luck with his further endeavors. For this outcome, he has no one to thank but his own comrades on the left.

Need we ask if all of them have something hidden, something they'd truly rather not see in the light of day? They all do. Consider Barney Frank. Consider Bill Ayers. Consider Ward Churchill. Under the old dispensation, he might well have been given a pass for his more vicious remarks under "freedom of expression" as understood in this fallen age. But that wasn't all -- far from it. Ward turned out to be a plagiarist, hustler, cheat, and poser of master status. When it all poured out, even as left-wing a campus as Boulder had to cut him loose.

Nobody on the planet earth quite equals the left for simple worldly corruption. The Renaissance princes might have been able to teach them a thing or two, but nobody else. Dig, and you will find. While digging, we might wish that things were different, that we could operate in as civil a manner as many of us would prefer. But we are not at the moment living in a civil epoch. No one reading these words ever has. We know of such a world once -- where decency is honored and nobility is a way of life, only because we have read about it. We are living in a different period now, a period in which our opponents feel completely at home. We cannot allow ourselves to be backed down by thugs such as these. To paraphrase Boccaccio: any tactic against such would-be tyrants is legitimate.

There is a difference between dissent and desertion, criticism and undermining. That difference has been lost amid a fog of relativism in the past few decades. But behind that fog, the hard stone of reality remains. It's no longer a game. People are going to die because of the actions taken by this country's leftists. Recognizing those differences has become a matter of life and death.

The terror conflict is a two-front war. It always has been, as reluctant as we have been to admit it. The time to open the second front is coming.

Very interesting article

Fort Hood gunman had told US military colleagues that infidels should have their throats cut

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6526030/Fort-Hood-gunman-had-told-US-military-colleagues-that-infidels-should-have-their-throats-cut.html

Thank you for saying that his family are also victims. All evidence points to the fact that they are innocent bystanders. Families of ordinary criminals suffer a lot of backlash from the crime of their loved ones. This family will suffer extraordinarily.

Rabbi-I agree with you that we need to show compassion for those who were afflicted--including the Hasan family. I also worry about the possibility about political, or actual, pogroms in this country against Moslems. However, I take issue with your statement that, because Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar", that we need to take a hard look at Islam. Although it would not have been the same thing (because a very different crime had been committed),if Bernie Madoff stated in open court that he did what he did because he was a son of Abraham, would it have been OK to take hard look at Judaism? Or would you have "written that off" as the expression of someone who had lost his way?

Dear Emily with a Kippah, please accept my apologies. I thought I was arguing with a confused Jew when actually you probably are a great great great great grandson of Torquemada and a nostalgic of the Spanish inquisition!

www.revisionisthistory and Michael Hoffman is the best you could come up with? Why not quote "my kempf" as well to explain to everyone how the Jews are the worst filth on earth.

It all started with a Muslim killing American soldiers but you could not help it and at to bring you hate in this forum.

For someone pretending to look for a religion of love, you have funny references:

"Judaism is not a normal adversary, it is an exceptional recrudescence of the guile synthesized from the accumulated intelligence of the eternal pagan psychodrama on which it is based.."

Yes this pure love!!!

Have a good life Emily without a Kippah or whoever you are. Just one thing, if you are trying to convince Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, you should look into different authors because antisemites like Hoffman won't cut the deal...

This whole thing just tears at my heart. I feel so sorry for the victims, as well as the shooter. He now has to face his actions forever, and hopefully he gets things straight in his mind.
I agree with you that there were many red flags that seemed to be ignored, with this man. To me this was a preventable occurance, if steps had been taken to evaluate Hasan, before he went off. Bonnie said it very well.

You Liberals always want characterize these type of people as crazy or mad etc, maybe just maybe this guy was a mainstream normal Muslim, but that is too scary for your type. There must be something wrong with him we can fix. This guy was a normal muslim practicing his religion Islam and following the Koran.

I hope that David Morley will continue his speech by saying, "...and Jews need to convert to Christianity as well, because the Samaritan was the good one in the parable, and the Pharisee (Jew) was the hypocrite snake." Otherwise he is only mis-representing himself on this Jewish blog and pretending to become allied with Jews by hating the same people Jews hate, Muslims.

I believe that Eytan means "Mein Kampf" instead of "my kempf." And I did not bring hate into this forum, it was those before me that did. The ones who say "Islam is a religion of hate and the Koran a religion of hate," without citing any sources. Yet I was able to find a source that cites the Talmud directly to prove that Judaism is a religion of hate, and the Jewish Scriptures texts of hate!

It is unfortunate that people can't see the parallel here, of a Christian man finding "proof" that an entire people are bound by hate, vs. Jewish people "proving" that another entire people are bound by hate.

**

It seems that Jews are doomed to repeat the mistakes Christians made over the past 2,000 years in declaring us Children of the Devil (John chapter 8) and Christ Killers (Matthew 27:25), leading to genocide that was on a daily basis ignored by ordinary "good citizens."

This quote says it all.

“British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow’s Train Bombing.”

Dear Emily:

To give the briefest possible answer your query, what is missing is the context of the hateful statements in your link is that they either explore a hypothesis that contains opposing viewpoints (in other words, they exist to be refuted) or else do not apply in modern life.

While here is a link to the meaning of 'Bhakti'.. ie. one's personal relationship to 'the Divine'...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2383016/posts

Warning from me: This is pretty graphic and is touching at the same time. You may need tissues handy...

This was read on the air by J.D. Hayworth, talk show host at KFYI in Phoenix. He received it from an officer that was just about to enter the building at Ft. Hood where the shooting happened. He wanted an accurate account out there since so far there's a lot of different accounts and they've yet to come together into 1 complete version.

Here's what he sent to KFYI:

First-Hand Account from Ft. Hood Monday 11-09-2009 2:57pm MT

Since I don't know when I'll sleep (it's 4 am now) I'll write what happened (the abbreviated version.....the long one is already part of the investigation with more to come). I'll not write about any part of the investigation that I've learned about since (as a witness I know more than I should since inevitably my JAG brothers and sisters are deeply involved in the investigation). Don't assume that most of the current media accounts are very accurate. They're not. They'll improve with time. Only those of us who were there really know what went down. But as they collate our statements they'll get it right.

I did my SRP last week (Soldier Readiness Processing) but you're supposed to come back a week later to have them look at the smallpox vaccination site (it's this big itchy growth on your shoulder). I am probably alive because I pulled a ---------- and entered the wrong building first (the main SRP building). The Medical SRP building is off to the side.

Realizing my mistake I left the main building and walked down the sidewalk to the medical SRP building. As I'm walking up to it the gunshots start. Slow and methodical. But continuous. Two ambulatory wounded came out. Then two soldiers dragging a third who was covered in blood. Hearing the shots but not seeing the shooter, along with a couple other soldiers I stood in the street and yelled at everyone who came running that it was clear but to "RUN!". I kept motioning people fast. about 6-10 minutes later (the shooting continuous), two cops ran up. one male, one female. we pointed in the direction of the shots. they headed that way (the medical SRP building was about 50 meters away). then a lot more gunfire. a couple minutes later a balding man in ACU's came around the building carrying a pistol and holding it tactically. He started shooting at us and we all dived back to the cars behind us. I don't think he hit the couple other guys who were there. I did see the bullet holes later in the cars. First I went behind a tire and then looked under the body of the car. I've been trained how to respond to gunfire...but with my own weapon. To have no weapon I don't know how to explain what that felt like. I hadn't run away and stayed because I had thought about the consequences or anything like that. I wasn't thinking anything through. Please understand, there was no intention. I was just staying there because I didn't think about running. It never occurred to me that he might shoot me.

Until he started shooting in my direction and I realized I was unarmed. Then the female cop comes around the corner. He shoots her. (according to the news accounts she got a round into him. I believe it, I just didn't see it. he didn't go down.) She goes down. He starts reloading. He's fiddling with his mags. Weirdly he hasn't dropped the one that was in his weapon. He's holding the fresh one and the old one (you do that on the range when time is not of the essence but in combat you would just let the old mag go). I see the male cop around the left corner of the building. (I'm about 15-20 meters from the shooter.) I yell at the cop, "He's reloading, he's reloading. Shoot him! Shoot him!) You have to understand, everything was quiet at this point. The cop appears to hear me and comes around the corner and shoots the shooter. He goes down. The cop kicks his weapon further away. I sprint up to the downed female cop. Another captain (I think he was with me behind the cars) comes up as well. She's bleeding profusely out of her thigh. We take our belts off and tourniquet her just like we've been trained (I hope we did it right...we didn't have any CLS (combat lifesaver) bags with their awesome tourniquets on us, so we worked with what we had).

Meanwhile, in the most bizarre moment of the day, a photographer was standing over us taking pictures. I suppose I'll be seeing those tomorrow. Then a soldier came up and identified himself as a medic. I then realized her weapon was lying there unsecured (and on "fire"). I stood over it and when I saw a cop yelled for him to come over and secure her weapon (I would have done so but I was worried someone would mistake me for a bad guy). I then went over to the shooter. He was unconscious. A Lt Colonel was there and had secured his primary weapon for the time being. He also had a revolver. I couldn't believe he was one of ours. I didn't want to believe it. Then I saw his name and rank and realized this wasn't just some specialist with mental issues. At this point there was a guy there from CID and I asked him if he knew he was the shooter and had him secured. He said he did.

I then went over the slaughter house. the medical SRP building. No human should ever have to see what that looked like. and I won't tell you. Just believe me. Please. there was nothing to be done there. Someone then said there was someone critically wounded around the corner. I ran around (while seeing this floor to ceiling window that someone had jumped through movie style) and saw a large African-American soldier lying on his back with two or three soldiers attending. I ran up and identified two entrance wounds on the right side of his stomach, one exit wound on the left side and one head wound. He was not bleeding externally from the stomach wounds (though almost certainly internally) but was bleeding from the head wound. A soldier was using a shirt to try and stop the head bleeding. He was conscious so I began talking to him to keep him so. He was 42, from North Carolina, he was named something Jr., his son was named something III and he had a daughter as well. His children lived with him. He was divorced. I told him the blubber on his stomach saved his life. He smiled. a young soldier in civvies showed up and identified himself as a combat medic. We debated whether to put him on the back of a pickup truck. A doctor (well, an audiologist) showed up and said you can't move him, he has a head wound. we finally sat tight. I went back to the slaughterhouse. they weren't letting anyone in there. not even medics. finally, after about 45 minutes had elapsed some cops showed up in tactical vests. someone said the TBI building was unsecured. They headed into there.

All of a sudden a couple more shots were fired. People shouted there was a second shooter. a half hour later the SWAT showed up. there was no second shooter. that had been an impetuous cop apparently. but that confused things for a while. meanwhile I went back to the shooter. the female cop had been taken away. a medic was pumping plasma into the shooter. I'm not proud of this but I went up to her and said "this is the shooter, is there anyone else who needs attention...do them first". she indicated everyone else living was attended to. I still hadn't seen any EMTs or ambulances. I had so much blood on me that people kept asking me if I was ok. but that was all other people's blood. eventually (an hour and a half to two hours after the shootings) they started landing choppers. they took out the big African American guy and the shooter. I guess the ambulatory wounded were all at the SRP building. Everyone else in my area was dead.

I suppose the emergency responders were told there were multiple shooters. I heard that was the delay with the choppers (they were all civilian helicopters). they needed a secure LZ. but other than the initial cops who did everything right, I didnt' see a lot of them for a while. I did see many a soldier rush out to help their fellows/sisters. there was one female soldier, I dont' know her name or rank but I would recognize her anywhere who was everywhere helping people. a couple people, mainly civilians, were hysterical, but only a couple. one civilian freaked out when I tried to comfort her when she saw my uniform. I guess she had seen the shooter up close. a lot of soldiers were rushing out to help even when we thought there was another gunman out there. this Army is not broken no matter what the pundits say. not the Army I saw.

and then they kept me for a long time to come. oh, and perhaps the most surreal thing, at 1500 (the end of the workday on Thursdays) when the bugle sounded we all came to attention and saluted the flag. in the middle of it all.

this is what I saw. it can't have been real. but this is my small corner of what happened