Bill Bennet: Last week the battlefield showed itself in one of the most unimaginable places: Ft. Hood, Texas. We don’t need to wring our hands and our brains to try and figure out the motive of the terrorist, when someone fires on Americans, killing as many as he possibly can, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” that is all I need to know. The question of motive need not be asked, especially not when you have further evidence of devout religiosity, and vocal criticism of our military missions in our other battlefields, like Iraq and Afghanistan: all of which was true of Nidal Hasan.
But there are questions to be asked and I suspect many of the answers will be unsatisfying — I also suspect we will see memos or some kind of paperwork on Nidal Hasan that will prove embarrassing to officials in the FBI, our intelligence services, or the military. There are many stories to relay relating to Hasan — here’s just one, reported by the AP: “Fellow students of Hasan in a military training course complained to the faculty about Hasan’s ‘anti-American propaganda,’ but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.”
Maybe so. But given the long chain of other stories about Hasan, there had to be paperwork. There had to be knowledge. And if nothing else, nothing else, questions as to why a formal investigation was not opened up on him after the FBI tracked Internet postings about suicide bombings by someone with his name remain. Questions as to why he would cite his nationality as Palestinian when he was born in Virginia remain. Questions as to why colleagues stated they were uncomfortable referring patients to him remain. Questions as to how you can have a member of the U.S. military’s fellow doctors recount that they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a “Muslim first and American second” remain. Questions as to how a member of the U.S. military can speak of infidels deserving to have their throats cut and have boiling oil poured down their throats and can stay in the military remain.
Questions as to why all this can at once remain true and he can be quoted as saying he wanted a discharge from the military and nothing was done remain.
I just offer this, the Code of Military Conduct:
"I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause .... I will never forget that I am an American, fighting for freedom, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America."
Final thought: If we can discharge officers and enlisted personnel for being gay, we can separate them and discharge them for being Muslim radicals, can we not? Or has, indeed, political correctness so infected our institutions that the U.S. military is now affected, too?
— William J. Bennett is the host of the nationally syndicated radio show, Bill Bennett's Morning in America, and the Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute.
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