Comments on: Lessons of the Fort Hood massacre: political correctness can be deadly

By: Beacon Street Journal » Blog Archive » Obama Administration’s response to latest WikiLeaks dump reveals its cavalier attitude on national security

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:50:54 +0000

[...] from the Fort Hood massacre last year were equally troubling. How did Major Nidal Malik Hasan work his way through the ranks of [...]

By: jesusluvsguns

jesusluvsguns — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:40:39 +0000

Is obvious that Hasan should been flagged and booted from the military long ago. Yet placing the blame on liberal political correctness is I think incorrect. Part of the blame could fall on this yet the majority of the blame should be placed on the bureaucracy of the military coupled with poor management. It should be noted that political correctness and diversity are not the same thing. We absolutely need diversity in the military because it reflects who we are as Americans. We are not a white nation.
I see you have made no suggestions as to how to correct what you see as a problem. Not to put words in your mouth but I gather you have problems with muslims in general. Maybe others have problems with latinos or gays or women. Should we exclude one or all of these groups from our military? From our lives? What are you suggesting we do?
To shift the debate a bit. Imagine that you must be a white christian to join the US military. What would our military look like? I’ll tell you what it will look like. Undermanned. If that were the case we could easily see an immediate need to reinstate the draft. You would be fine with seeing your children shipped off to Iraq right?

By: kurtfawnigat

kurtfawnigat — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:51:19 +0000

So let’s be clear. The consensus is that “this was an act of terrorism.” So Al Qaeda has imbedded U.S. born mental health professional sleeper agents on Mil bases and the paid informants we’re using get us the Ft. Dix six and those retarded gentlemen from New York City? (the career-crack-heads, not the Denver guy.
Is it bad to suggest that we’ve lost the upper-hand in terms of infiltration?

But I’m with ya John- America for the Americans!
Now who are they exactly?

By: dtafs

dtafs — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:31:57 +0000

I was just responding to the Op’s assertion that this man made these comments in a meeting with other medical servicemen and women.

By: Rick Ungar

Rick Ungar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:30:09 +0000

I never suggested you did say that in your article. I wrote “IF you want muslims drummed out….”
This is my point. What are you proposing? I think that your failure to say what you would do is an act of political correctness on your part. so.. you raise the problem Now, what would be your solution?

By: planetolywa

planetolywa — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:54:38 +0000

It seems to me to blame not catching Dr. Hasan prior to his murderous behavior on PC or adhering to some standard of diversity is the ultimate double bind in that nothing is accomplished in understanding why anyone would choose such behavior in the first place. Like it or not, we are a nation of litigators and as a lawyer John, I’m sure you are more aware of this than the average citizen. The fact is most of us are afraid to speak out in any variety of situations for fear of being sued. Following your logic, it would be safe to say people don’t speak out because of lawyers who go to court to argue for the plaintiff who has been discriminated because of their religion. If there is any issue that stands in front of our love of PC or adherence to diversity it’s the love of litigation at the slightest slight that has overtaken legitimate grievance. Your argument that people did nothing to notify authorities that might have prevented this slaughter because they were adhering to some vague idea such as PC or diversity skews the entire episode and makes the explanation simplistic and far too easy, preventing anyone from actually developing a deeper understanding of human behavior. I think what we call PC or diversity is actually a description of a broad change in our culture that is moving away from simplistic descriptions of people based on race or religion or gender, and as in any broad shift in culture there is awkwardness and confusion as we change. To blame murder for our effort to change and become more open and accepting of others who might be different than the mostly white straight christian guys who’ve run things for so long is in the end really stupid and does nothing to help us understand how a person who chooses mass murder could have made such a decision in the first place.

By: libtree09

libtree09 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:08:50 +0000

dtafs,

Where did you get this information and is it verified?

By: dtafs

dtafs — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:34:45 +0000

As a side note. My comments above probably read a little more harsh than they are intended.

I’m not slamming the OP, or any of the responses, I’m just kind of, talking out loud about responsibility and accountability.

By: dtafs

dtafs — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:31:08 +0000

We also learned that prior to arriving at Fort “Hood, Hasan gave a lecture in front of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center during which he exclaimed that, “non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.” Yet the institutionalized dictates of political correctness demanded silence on the part of those fellow officers who feared disclosing the incident to superiors for fear that it might expose them to charges of practicing discrimination against a protected minority”

That’s a lame duck excuse, at best. Since when does a room full of adults (assuming) NOT report such inflammatory comments for fear of discrimination?

If I’m in a room with 20 other people, and one person says something along these lines, I have 18 other witnesses who heard the remarks. How could I NOT report what is said, in good conscience?

Those same doctors are now hiding behind the veil of “PC” when they should be apologizing up and down for gross negligence on their part. You can’t just give them a pass on this. They have a responsibility, as people.

Forgive me, but the idea that you “might” get in trouble doesn’t absolve you from the responsibility of reporting something. And if this what the Army has been preaching to young, impressionable adults over the years, then I feel sorry for them and hope that at some point, they realize what their true responsibility is in a situation like that.

But whatever, blame whomever you want to blame, or whatever ideology you want to blame. In the end, we’re not going to find out much else since the Army loves to compartmentalize these types of things, so as to not tarnish their “stellar” reputation.

By: layla

layla — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:00:44 +0000

Actually, Rick, I like it when a blogger or columnist provokes me to think by asking interesting questions nobody else has thought of, rather than just giving me his opinion. Both approaches are worthy, but one or the other exclusively is quite boring.

To respond to your point: Michael nowhere even intimated that he thinks a solution would be to ban Muslims from the military. Is that really the only solution you can come up with to the question he implicitly posed? How about asking those who volunteer for military service if they would find it difficult or impossible to go to war with another country based on their religious beliefs or ethnic identification? This is a neutral question that does not discriminate and should give offense to no one. True, the questioner would have to rely on my honesty, but so does the Red Cross when they ask if I’ve ever injected drugs or slept with a gay man.