All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Word is Traitor

Nidal Malik Hasan is a Major in the U.S. Army. He is not a civilian, not a jihadist, not a terrorist. First and foremost he is a traitor and he should be treated like a traitor. I have not heard this word use by anyone yet. Not the media, not the military, not even the President. Hasan should be court-martial-ed and executed for treason. There is no doubt about his guilt and no mitigating circumstance for an officer who wantonly kills his men. He not only took the oath of a soldier. He went the extra mile and took a commission. His major job was to protect the men under his command, even if that command was indirect. Enlisted men are trained to trust officers and obey their commands. The troops in the base were not expecting to have to defend themselves on their own base from one of their superiors. For the most part troops on a military base do not carry arms unless their specific duties or maneuvers call for it. Hasan was given every chance. He gave lectures in which he espoused the dictates of the Koran. He found beheading infidels and filling their severed heads with boiling oil defensible. He defended the activity of Muslim terrorists. He was permitted to continue on active duty. We now know he was communicating with terrorists and that it may have been known by others in the chain of command. If this turns out to be true they should also bear some responsibility. Enlisted troops must know they can trust their officers without hesitation and without trepidation that he or she may kill them when they are defenseless. Many men have cracked from the prospect of being sent to a war zone and react badly. It is an issue of personal courage and Hasan chose to go out in a blaze of jihadist glory and put the blame on the Army and America rather than himself. There is ample evidence that his attack was premeditated. We do not need to know the workings of his inner mind, his personal conflict about his role in the military, or whether or not he is a Muslim. The military accepted him despite his flaws and he chose to repay the military by killing and wounding unarmed soldiers who where at home and not expecting to have defend themselves against one of their own. He should be stripped of his commission and executed by firing squad.