An open letter to Nidal Hasan & his superiors
In the past week, I've heard more than one tirade including some comment along the lines of, "Why the fuck are we even letting Muslims into the goddamn military? Look what happened! Big fucking surprise!" One particularly heated ex-New Yorker went on to suggest—no, insist—we should lock all American Muslims up until the end of the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, just like we did to the "Japs" during WWII. Seriously. Until that moment, I respected this particular person as a reasonably thoughtful, broadminded person. My bad.
But really, is this even surprising? No, it isn't. As soon as I heard the Ft. Hood shooter was a Muslim (to say nothing of a brown-skinned Muslim with a weird foreign-sounding name), I was waiting to hear it from someone. And so, I have a few things I'd like to say to Mr. Hasan:
When the Bernie Madoff story broke, I cringed on behalf of the American Jewish community. Because all they needed was some asshole Jew to come along and "prove"—to the tune of 50 billion dollars—to the backwards-ass anti-Semite community that Jews really are soulless, money-hungry, lying cheating sleazeballs. Big thanks to Bernie for that. And now we have you, "proving" to the anti-Muslim contingent in the US, that your people are all violent, murderous anti-American lunatics.
Maybe, while you're recuperating from the gunshot wounds that would have fucking killed you in a fair world, you could check the news to see if anti-Muslim hate crimes suddenly get a little boost in popularity thanks to your antics? I'd bet yes. You stupid, crazy, waste of fucking oxygen. Lord knows I've had to try and explain the fact that it's illegal to discriminate on the basis of religion to more than one seriously pissed off person lately.
So yeah, go ahead and kill yourself. Save the government the money they're going to waste on your trial. Save the American Muslim community the racist outbursts that are going to continue getting worse, as more and more news about your shooting spree hits the headlines. You're in a hospital, for fuck's sake. There's gotta be something dangerous around there that would do the trick.
And now for Mr. Hasan's superiors. The more I hear about his military career, and all the misgivings and concerns and warning signs that followed him over the years, the more pissed I get at the military establishment that basically sat around and let this shit happen.
You were all worried you needed to be more sensitive to his religious and ethnic background? Seriously? You asses. Here's the question you need to ask yourself next time you think a brown guy might be batshit crazy, but you're too scared to do anything about it: "If a white guy acted the exact same way, what would I do?" Then go ahead and do that. If you have any power of imagination whatsoever, it should be a relatively simple exercise.
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't let a white guy skip his exams and still get passing grades in your classes. I'm pretty sure if everyone suspected a white guy was mentally unhinged, he wouldn't be given a position as a psychiatrist. I'm pretty sure if people wondered to each other whether or not a white guy was going to snap & "commit fratricide", some kind of intervention might be done. He might even be temporarily relieved of his counseling duties… unless having murderous wingnuts counseling returning soldiers is what we're going for here?
Resign. Every single one of you who was in a position of authority over Hasan, who suspected something was seriously wrong with him, who had the power to do something to get him out of the military, or get him help for his obvious mental problems. Resign your posts. Write a letter of apology to the families of all of his victims, pack your bags, and get the fuck out of the military.
Unfortunately, no matter what anyone does after the fact, nothing is going to make up for the damage done to the American Muslim community. So, I suppose I may as well brace myself for a lot more eyerolling, cringing, and spouting various iterations of my increasingly polished "it's illegal to discriminate based on religion, that's one of the principles our country was founded on," speech. I don't know which is worse, the crazy fuck or all the ignorant fucks he's gotten fired up.
I fear "all the ignorant fucks he's gotten fired up" may have been the point. What better way to keep a perceived holy war going than to get people's anger and racism to the surface so they can't think. Most 'jihadists' (and their western counterparts) probably hate it when people die. Some fucking love when their own people get killed and want it to happen. One side's waning? Kill some of them and get them angry.
13th November 2009 at 7:06 am | permalink |I think the right-wing rage monkeys are at maximum capacity at the moment.
They have a little Scotty character in their brain yelling, "I don't don' think she can take much more, cap'n! I'm givin' her all I've got!"
13th November 2009 at 7:44 am | permalink |That's ridiculous. Jihad is a spreading of the faith through peaceful ways, not suicide bombings. it's bad enough we have priests that have kids, and nuns who get pregnant, but can't one religion acutually have followers that aren't close minded sheep? fuck dude.
13th November 2009 at 10:11 am | permalink |@grimbles: If they could prove that extent of calculation involved in the crime, holy fuck would a jury screw his ass to a fucking wall.
OK Mr. Hasan, I take it back. Don't kill yourself. Confess you were only doing it to incite racist violence against Muslims to incite a full-on culture war. Pretty please?
@mentholized: I don't think there are too many closed-minded sheep Buddhists, but I could be wrong. heh
13th November 2009 at 12:23 pm | permalink |@ alpha: There are quite a few Buddhist extremists out there, mostly in Sri Lanka and SE Asia:
"Sri Lankan churches came under attack again this Sunday by organized groups of Buddhist extremists led by influential monks."
Link
It seems to be a mix of nationalism and religious extremism, but the underpinning is clearly religious.
14th November 2009 at 7:24 am | permalink |The important thing is that we have a diverse military. A few Zionists are expendable in the larger picture. In fact, I say we line a few Christian Devils up every month and execute them in the name of Allah. That way we can avoid all that messy SOA (soldier of Allah) business and the element of shock and awe and just relegate it to filler pieces on the news and in papers.
14th November 2009 at 7:04 pm | permalink |@Becca: See there, that's why I say things like, "I could be wrong." Heh. Altho I gotta say, if even the Buddhists are whackjobs, I fear we're fucked.
What about the Hare Krishnas? Please tell me they're non-violent? lol
@D Watson: *snort* We could just set up Xtian vs. Muslim volunteer gladiatorial combat, maybe?
14th November 2009 at 7:29 pm | permalink |Yo, biatchshit4brains. The first time someone actually took your suggestion and removed an undeserving poser from a class or position because they couldn't perform and, oh yeah, they'd claim "racism", you'd be the first one to the aclu defending the b-tard and throwing every average white guy in-charge under the bus because "it's all the man's fault for keeping the brother/sister/muslim down."
Don't claim moral superiority here on those that passed this guy along. I don't defend their actions, but it was the leftist, whacked out loons that created the environment that support, and let thrive, Hasan and others like him.
15th November 2009 at 12:48 pm | permalink |Unfortunately, it is not a religion that makes people whackjobs. People are the common theme. Religion is the convenient cover. Like drug addicts, it is not the drug that made the addicted homosapien, it is the homosapien that ingested the drug because he/she wanted to get stoned. People, that want to be angry, find a unifying theme (e.g., religion or sports teams or nationalism), twist it into their own angry image and voila! Let the crusades/jihad/whatever-the-fuck-you-want-to-call-it begin. There are fucking cunts that hide under the label of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, or Judaism. There are fucking cunts that hide under the US, GB, French, North Korean flag. However, there are also real humans in amongst them too. Regardless of label.
15th November 2009 at 3:47 pm | permalink |@reality check: Concerning your first paragraph: No, I wouldn't. If you're incompetent to fill the position you're in, whether military or civilian, you shouldn't be there. Period. Color, creed, gender? All irrelevant.
@Dr. Atomix: Well said. And in any group, it's the resident whackjobs who are so vociferously convinced ALL members of some other group are whackjobs. Oh the irony.
I supposed it's rather like the one from my quote file: "A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something that he can understand." (Bertrand Russell) Apparently, if you're a whackjob yourself, that becomes the only way you're capable of perceiving "outsiders"?
15th November 2009 at 6:42 pm | permalink |@alpha: OK, I'll buy that you're not part of the problem, but I find it hard to believe judging some of your other positions.
You have to admit it's the court system and public opinion that create the reality. The minute you fire/remove a whackjob, he wouldn't even have to run to a lawyer, they'll find him. Next thing you know, the "victim" is on with Couric and everyone is branding the "authority" as intolerant. Badabing badaboom, the next Hasan gets passed around and promoted until we have another investigation into what went wrong and how we should hold accountable those that passed him around.
16th November 2009 at 6:17 am | permalink |@ reality check: You are sooooo original. I've never heard it put quite that way before. I get it now. People are afraid to challenge the status quo and afraid of being accused of being racist, so they act racist in a reverse manner. Americans are just whiny, spineless bitches.
Wow. If only I'd noticed that before. You must be the only person in the entire U.S. who has thought of something like that. If only people would think more like you.
…
Oh yeah … [/sarcasm]
16th November 2009 at 11:32 am | permalink |Let's put the jerks in jail that allowed this to happen. That'll fix it. Then no one will have to worry about the next Hasan. I want accountability, DAMN IT!!!
oh yeah…[/sarcasm]
(gee, where'd you get the idea for the name of the website?)
16th November 2009 at 2:56 pm | permalink |@ becca
have you ever tried to fire someone? not only is it emotionally hard… it is just flat out fucking hard to build a case to get someone fired. especially if said person is in any kind of minority group, has any kind of illness or thinks that their boss might be mean or their co-workers aggressive. I blame Human Resources. I would be willing to bet you could work the military system just as easily as you could work a corporate system. that is years of doing all the wrong things whilst collecting a pay check. just like grade school sometimes bad employees get promoted just to get them the fuck out of the way.It's wrong, it sucks, but it happens all the time.
17th November 2009 at 9:01 pm | permalink |@ Muffy: Yes, I fired someone last month. He deserved it, and he was in a minority group. And yes, he is talking about suing.
But remember:
1) Anyone can sue for anything, you just need to be able to defend yourself.
17th November 2009 at 9:58 pm | permalink |2) You can fire anyone for any reason, so long as you do it correctly. If they deserve to be fired, it's easy to fire them. That's what a good manager does.
@ becca
wow i want to work where you work.. Nirvana must RULE!!!
19th November 2009 at 5:36 pm | permalink |Eh, grunge is a bit '90s.
Also, from memory, Becca's in the UK, and I get the feeling they have slightly less *fucked up* litigation laws than the US. I might be wrong.
20th November 2009 at 2:06 am | permalink |ahhh that makes much more sense. UK employment laws tend to be far superior to the US IMHO.
I liked the 90's.
i was grunge before grunge was grunge *nods*
20th November 2009 at 9:25 pm | permalink |@ grimbles/muffy: In the U.K., the laws governing when/how you can fire someone are far more restrictive than in the U.S.
However, it still remains, if you do things correctly, you can fire someone without a lot of horrible consequences. It really is pretty straightforward, if you really want/need to do it.
21st November 2009 at 4:15 pm | permalink |I wasn't suggesting they were looser, but that there was less room for people to cry discrimination, when discrimination had nothing to do with it. In fact, I suspect the fact that the laws are more restrictive means that there'd be less room for a borderline firing that could lead to a discrimination case.
21st November 2009 at 6:02 pm | permalink |@alphabitch re. "OK Mr. Hasan, I take it back. Don't kill yourself. Confess you were only doing it to incite racist violence against Muslims to incite a full-on culture war. Pretty please?"
how close would that be to history (depending on different views) repeating itself?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire
thanks for your brilliant rants. best regards from europe.
22nd November 2009 at 12:54 pm | permalink |@coffee: I think you might have just earned the all-time trophy for the most salient and most subtle invocation of Godwin's Law of all time! lol
But really… I don't see Obama using Ft. Hood as an excuse to consolidate power. Bush II already tried doing that to the best of his marginal abilities, and thankfully failed. hehehe
23rd November 2009 at 2:11 am | permalink |@alphabitch: Re. Godwin's law, thanks, but that was easy in such an environment. Try that in a pet lovers, home owners or train nuts forum.
I was using the example to show my appreciation for your ability to defend and/or twist your statements to prove your point, and – being European and all – was using a, let's call it insincere approach.
Great writing. Cheers from Austria.
23rd November 2009 at 6:31 am | permalink |Anyone who deserves it can be fired in the U.S., and for many jobs, people can be fired when they don't deserve it. Just because an angry axed employee files a complaint does not mean it will hold up, and most people never sue because suing is very expensive and time consuming, plus can ruin a professional reputation even when the suit is justified.
Fears of lawsuits are overblown in numerous sectors, mostly spread by insurance companies wanting to extort new policies out of the fearful without ever having to pay anything out. Doctors are fearful of lawsuits even though most are Never sued, when they are they almost always win. Yet they pay humongous amounts of money for insurance. Same for school districts. Same for corporations.
If a manager is fair, does their job right, and follows protocol, and keeps a paper trail, he or she can fire an employee and all the threats in the world won't matter.
22nd January 2010 at 1:30 am | permalink |"Altho I gotta say, if even the Buddhists are whackjobs, I fear we're fucked."
We are fucked. We are seriously fucked, and life is very, very good.
(Saying that is my "it's illegal to discriminate based on religion, that's one of the principles our country was founded on." Yours may be more to the political point, but I find that mine offers a peacefully philosophical dimension I often desperately need when confronted with the institutional stupidity and bloody-mindedness of our time.)
10th March 2010 at 11:21 pm | permalink |@reality check: Having actually served in the military–with all its faults, generally a rather color-blind American institution, particularly when compared with the civilian world, I am shocked that Hasan's superiors ignored the signs of his unsuitability and incompetence. You'd know, if you'd have served, or if you recalled the time when you served (if you did), that the military strongly tends NOT to indulge in lawyer-fear of the kind you (and those of your political stripe) love to invoke–even for civilian employees.
As to the matter of the USofA representing a litigious society, please, o please, stop fucking representing that as some sort of left-wing phenomenon. Even a cursory look will show that both sides of the (increasingly defunct) left/right divide have readily resorted to the courts in pursuit of their agendas.
10th March 2010 at 11:29 pm | permalink |