The Violence Worker!

The Times Square Bomber

Despite my rather malicious sounding nomme de blog, I am not prone to causing mayhem or inflicting damage upon people and/or animals.  The "Violence Worker" appellation is nothing more than a tongue in cheek nod to some idiot liberal who once said that those who work for the American war machine should be shamed by calling them "violence workers" (something I read back in the 90s).  Since I spent 20 years in the USAF and now work for a major defense contractor, it seemed to fit.  Bottom line, I'm not violent.  My sister will attest that my only real claim to domestication is that I live in a house, but other than that, I'm fairly harmless.

However, if you listen to the left wing press, I should probably be on a terrorist watch list because A: I don't like Obama and B: I support the goals of the Tea Party Movement.  When the Times Square News Broke, I should have been at the top of the suspect list.  (I have an airtight alibi, just so you know.)

The press and idiots that inhabit the fever swamp known as the Democratic Underground (Go find it yourself) were all convinced it was a guy like me. Instead, it was a guy named Faisal from Pakistan. 

Never mind that there is not one shred of evidence that anyone in the Tea Party movement is planning some terrorist act, we are at the top of the list.  Young Muslim males, however, seem to be at the bottom of their list of possible suspects whenever something like this happens.

Go figure that.

VW

Nidal Hasan Is A Terrorist

Pure and simple, Nidal Hasan is a terrorist.  At what point he decided to become one is secondary, but it's time to call it what it is and get on with ensuring we don't have a repeat performance if there are others out there with similar tendencies.  Instead, we seem to be poking our collective heads into the sand hoping to find some reason he would commit such a heinous act rather than address the idea that it is a free-lance terrorist hit.

Liberalism has caused us to become too civilized.  Instead of acknowledging that there is evil in this world, we are forced to look for other causes to justify the evil that men (and women) do as if there was some underlying mental illness. 

Obviously, I'm not a trained psychologist or a psychiatrist.  That said, I do understand that there is mental illness and it sometimes does cause people to do bad things - even kill people.  Those people are the ones who truly don't understand the magnitude of their crime.  We also have a tendency to think that everyone values human life like we do.  Like it or not, our cultual understanding of the sanctity of life comes from our Judeo-Christian history and culture.  Life is holy and precious to us. Not everyone in the world sees it that same way.  As Hasan put it:

"We love death more then [sic] you love life!"

To us, that is crazy.  To the Islamist, it makes sense.  This life is nothing and if you can advance your god's reach by killing yourself while killing others, your reward will be that much greater. 

Radical Islam is not about peaceful coexistence.  It is not about allowing you to believe differently.  Some morons (and that is what they are) try to equate conservative Christianity with the likes of the Taliban or other Islamic Radicals in order to somehow put all believers into the same jar.  They point to the odd violent nutbot who kills an abortion provider and try to make Christians out to be some sort of western jihadist.  It's doesn't work and almost the whole of Christianity condemns such actions unlike the whole of Islam.  There are some who denounce the actions of the Jihadists, but most sit in in silence.

Hasan did not act out of some vicarious PTSD.  To say  that is an insult to those good soldiers that actually suffer from PTSD.  Hasan acted with all due malice and forethought.  I suspect that he expected to die in the process, but fortunately, that did not happen.  It just came across the wire that he will face 13 counts of premeditated murder. 

I'd like to see him charged with domestic terrorism as well.  Certainly, if he is convicted on the 13 counts of murder, he will most likely receive the death penalty and the terrorism charge won't add to that.  What it will do is officially label him as a terrorist.  If nothing else, that will negate the PTSD crap.

VW

Did Major Hasan Have PTSD?

This post has some PG-13 rated language, but it's well worth the read.  It answers the question as to whether or not Major Hasan was suffering from PTSD when he decided to become a terrorist. I'm thinking he didn't.

See what you think.

VW

The Fort Hood Massacre

There are a lot of questions about what went down yesterday that will not be answered soon.  I'm sure that some wished that he'd died at the scene, but I think it's best that he survived.  For one, it didn't make him some sort of martyr.  For another, we will get a chance to answer a lot of those questions.  It's easier to get answers from a live person than a dead body. 

Hasan's crime opens up some related questions and concerns.  Obviously, the first question is What did the Army know and when did they know it.  There are some reports (and I'll call them "unverified" for now) that says he was becoming increasingly radical.  Another is if they did know, why didn't they do something about it?

My main concern is the fallout within the military community itself.  This is not the first incident where a Muslim soldier decided to kill his fellow soldiers.  One can imagine that a Muslim soldier in a unit right now would be looked at with a healthy dose of suspicion.  It's human nature.  Indeed, I can imagine he would be sleeping with one eye open.

Obviously, I don't condone someone taking vigilante action against anyone, but human nature being what it is, I believe some of these guys might be in real danger.  This is their reality. 

Profiling people by law enforcement is not always a bad thing.  When you have statistics and specific actions to look at, you need to profile.  You need to get ahead of the game or you will see people getting killed.  Unfortunately, profiling is an inexact science and care must be taken, but we need to start looking at who we have in our armed forces.

I know that not all Muslims are evil or bad.   Most are pretty ordinary folks.  I met some fine Muslim people when I was recently in Qatar.  People I am now proud to call my friends.  However, when you have some bad apples, you need to inspect the barrel and in this case, the specific barrel is the Armed Forces. 

God bless the families of the killed and wounded.  May he comfort those who grieve. As for Hasan, let justice be done.

VW

Abdulhakim Muhammad Deserves Death

Two of America's finest were gunned down in cold blood by a man not fit to lick dog excrement off of their boots.  Abdulhakim Muhammad killed William Long and wounded Quinton Ezeagwula because he was "mad at the US Military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past."

I'm not trying to excuse this slimebag's action one iota, but I can't help but think he was played.  I'm certain that his head was filled with all kinds of hate and crap by some nut job Jihadis and when he returned, he acted out of conditioning..  Who knows?

I hope this guy gets the needle and becomes an example to any other would be instant Jihadis out there contemplating some sort of stupidity.

My prayers and condolences to the Long family and my prayers for a speedy recovery for Private Ezeagwula and comfort for his family.  

VW

Deepak Chopra On Ending Terrorism

TIME has  an article by Dr. Deepak Chopra on how to stop future Mumbai type attacks.  I'll be honest, I don't know much about the guy.  He must be really, really smart because he has this whole terrorist thing all figured out..

You see, terrorists are like crabgrass:

The poison of Islamic fundamentalism will survive any aggression we mount against it. Roots don't submit to violence. (Chop up a crabgrass root, and it breeds a dozen new offspring.) You have to patiently dig and dig, and never give up until the job's done.

And he ends with this summation:

The crucial thing is a change of direction on America's part. Much of the widespread Muslim sympathy for al-Qaeda is based on defensiveness, the attitude of people who feel attacked and judged against. We should be able to police the threat of terrorism without making more than a billion Muslims feel that they have an enemy. And consider this: if you take the opposite approach, refusing to dig out terrorism by its roots, you are saying in effect that the jihad movement that affects every Muslim country is rootless. That makes no sense at all, and it will keep making no sense as long as we mistake killing terrorists for killing terrorism.

Dr. Chopra might be a a great man of medicine and a whiz on the lecture circuit, but he's not much of a gardener.  If I want to get rid of my crabgrass, I have many weapons at my disposal.  There are chemicals such as Round Up, or a specific crabgrass killer.  He's right, you have to get rid of the roots, but digging is not the only answer. 

Terrorism is not some annoying weed that chokes your lawn.  It's roots are not easily dug out of the ground or easily poisoned.  We are dealing with a culture that is hell bent on ruling the world.  At the root of a lot of this is a religious zealotry so ingrained that they are willing to commit suicide to further their cause.  Life to the Jihadist is death to the infidel by any means necessary.  They kill innocents as willingly as they kill an armed enemy. 

Certainly, spraying bullets is not the only answer to terrorism as spraying poison isn't the only answer to killing weeds but it's one of the best weapons we have. 

Often times, we hear from different people who suggest that terrorism is rooted in poverty and hopelessness and Dr. Chopra seems to indicate that as a cause.  It is in this case, but not exactly how most people think.  The poverty is not caused by us, it's caused by their own and they leverage that to whip up hatred. 

We will not choke off Islamic Terrorism by being nice.  Their leaders hate us and our way of life and they expend a lot of effort poisoning the minds of their youth with this. Add to that their quest to bring Islam to the world and you have a mix that will not be mollified by the US trying to play Pollyanna.  They understand it will be a long struggle and may not come in their lifetime and they are willing to do whatever it takes or wait however long.

Stick to medicine, Doc. 

VW

Rethinking Posse Comitatus

All of us are concerned (or should be) about national security.  If you didn't get the lessons of Mumbai, you weren't paying attention.  Can you imagine the damage a small group of well armed terrorists could do in a major US city?  None of us even want to contemplate such a tragedy but it is something that we should unfortunately plan for and defend against.

That said, the Pentagon announced a plan to deploy up to 20,000 federal troops for Homeland Security.

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

First, I think we need to rethink defense just a little.  For the better part of the 20th century -especially post WWII - our military was trained to fight enemies everywhere but here.  We have a lot of military bases here in the US, but their missions were not built around defending our borders per se.  When I was in Bomber Wings, we trained to bomb Russia and China.  When I was in Fighter Wings, we trained to deploy to predetermined hot spots such as Korea or the defense of Europe.  Most Army troops garrisoned here were actually slated to deploy to Korea, Europe, or wherever.  Few trained to fight on US soil except some fighter interceptor units, but most of those weren't large enough to stave off a large attack.  Certainly training for overseas would translate to homeland defense, but by and large, we were trained for foreign theaters. 

I'm thinking homeland security was mostly an after thought.  After all, we didn't figure a land army would even attempt an invasion and it was not a mistaken assumption.  No one in their right mind would attempt to invade the US.  

And that still holds true.  However, the world has changed and so has warfare.  It's no longer solely a symmetrical endeavor with front lines and generals hovering over huge maps moving toy tanks and soldiers around like Las Vegas Craps croupiers.  To be sure, we still need that kind of training, but with the advent of Islamic terrorism, we also need to rework our defense strategy to deal with the threat today and to anticipate future threats.

The article mentions the Posse Comitatus act of 1878 that limits how federal troops can be used.  From Wikipedia: 

The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act.

In general, the Posse Comitatus act is a good idea.  It has served us well and there are some that are worried about using Federal troops for homeland defense.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.

Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.

While I think there is reason to be cautious, this is not the America of 1878.  We face threats no one would have even imagined back 130 years ago.  The article also points out that this will possibly stretch our military too far.  If that's the case, I think we need to expand it. 

Warfare and threats are ever changing and in many cases, ever increasing.  Today, we even have a headline telling us some rather chilling news: 

Study Reports U.S. Can Expect Nuclear Terrorist Attack Before 2013

We need to rethink Posse Comitatus and work on building or national defenses.  The continued military draw down since the Reagan years leaves us vulnerable and our enemies know it.

VW

The Lesson Of Mumbai

The war on terror is not about being nice to people nor is it about us being involved in the Middle East. It's not a traditional symmetrical war where you have men in uniforms opposing each other on opposing fronts fighting for territory. What has replaced it is something more terrifying and brutal.

We often speak of a culture war or clash, but we do so figuratively, not literally. Usually it's a collision of ideas and philosophy, not an out right bullet swap. The attack on Mumbai was an all out, live-fire attack on culture.

Mumbai was a huge escalation in the this war. In the past, bombs would be planted, or suicide bombers would blow themselves up in a crowd. Terrifying, but usually with limited results. It was one or more coordinated explosions and over with in a few minutes. This was a direct attack on specific buildings with automatic weapons targeting unarmed civilians. News reports are saying that it was a band of 10-40 dedicated commando style terrorists.

It was evident that they were both well trained and their attack was well planned and orchestrated. They knew their targets and their layouts. I've even read that they might have been receiving coordination via Blackberry from some sort of command center

Radical Islam is not about borders. It's about spreading Islam. They don't care about their lives or how long it takes. They believe the world will be their Caliphate and we will eventually bow to Mecca.

Our next attack on our soil will not be a jet liner crashing into a skyscraper. Even if this attack was simply a continuation of the on-going Pakistani-Indian dispute, terrorists worldwide took notice. They saw what a small group of well trained fanatics can accomplish. Mumbai wasn't chosen just for it's tourist location, it was chosen because it is the financial hub of India. They know that by making people afraid to visit or do business in Mumbai, they would harm the Indian economy. Folks have been saying it was India's 9-11 and I would agree with that premise.

This is a war on the west. This is a war on anyone and anything that is not Islamic. This was not an isolated attack and it will happen again, somewhere soon - maybe in your city.

Police and the armed forces better start preparing for such an eventuality and fast!

VW

William Ayers In Perspective

Imagine, if you will, that at some point in John McCain's career, he had some sort of collaborative association with Timothy McVeigh.  It doesn't take much of an imagination to understand the political hay the Democrats would be making out of that.  McCain would never even be in the running to be President let alone be a Senator.  McVeigh was an anti-government political terrorist who bombed a federal office building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people.  It was a horrible crime for which McVeigh deservedly paid the ultimate price. 

Obama is an associate of William Ayers.  He can spin it, he can fold, spindle and mutilate it, but the irrefutable fact is that he had more than a passing relationship with William Ayers.  He worked for and with Ayers on several projects and Ayers helped launch his political career. 

William Ayers is an unrepentent anti-government terrorist.  Ayers planted and set off numerous bombs. He bombed the NYC Police Station, he bombed a statue twice and he planted bombs at the Pentagon and the Capitol building. 

The only difference between William Ayers and Timothy McVeigh is the body count!

Ayers and McVeigh may  differ in political philosphy, but it doesn't really matter.  Both are anti-government terrorists who used violence as a means to their respective ends.

Somehow, we give Obama a pass where we would crucify McCain.  Tell me what kind of sense that makes!

VW

USAF Thunderbirds Are Protecting Iran!

Sometimes, you just gotta wonder if there isn't some kind of Islamic Jihad School of Journalism somewhere that teaches its graduates to make up the most audacious crap to pass off as news.  It reminds me of a cat trying to make itself look bigger when threatened. 

Here's the link

Iran-Army-Commander

Enemy is by no means able to launch military attack against Iran, Air Force Commander Brigadier General pilot Ahmad Miqani said on Thursday.

Addressing a ceremony to celebrate graduation of a number of officers in an air base, the commander stressed Iran's military strength in the region.

"Relying on efforts made by its young experts, the Air Force of the Armed Forces has made remarkable achievements in various fields and this has resulted in promoting Iran's authority inside and outside the region," said the commander.

As for the threats made against Iran by certain countries, the commander said, "Such threats have been always made against the country but the question is why they have never been carried out?" The commander urged the newly-graduated officers to protect "the sky of Iran" using their knowledge, expertise, scientific ability and self-reliance.

And if all else fails, paste some really cool looking airplanes into your news/announcement to impress the infidels with your military prowess.

Just make sure they aren't the really cool looking airplanes owned by your enemy! In this case, they used a photo of none other than the USAF Thunderbirds!

I guess if you are going to lie, lie big!

Flattery will get them nowhere!

VW