Category: Big Army

We talked the other day about the 160 victims of Nidal Hasan in the Fort Hood murders of 14 people who’ve banded together to fight against the Pentagon’s reticence to label the attack as terror, preferring the completely ridiculous “workplace violence” as if Nasan was a disgruntled employee instead of a jihadist who sought the counsel of a fellow traveler halfway around the world. Today, the Pentagon tells the Washington Times that they won’t change their classification of the attack because they’re worried about whether or not Hasan would get a fair trial with an impartial jury if they called it terrorism;

“The Department of Defense is committed to the integrity of the ongoing court martial proceedings of Major Nadal Hassan and for that reason will not further characterize, at this time, the incident that occurred at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in the statement. “Major Hassan has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder, and 32 counts of attempted murder. As with all pending UCMJ matters, the accused is innocent until proven guilty.”

I don’t understand that answer. Whether it was terrorism or not, it doesn’t change the facts of the case. Why would a jury be more likely to be prejudiced against Hasan if his murder of 14 people were called terrorism?

But Mark Zaid, a national security law expert who sued Libya for the 1988 terrorism bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, said he doubted the government’s hesitancy to designate the Fort Hood assault terrorism was really motivated by concern about prejudicing his trial.

“I find that a little difficult to believe,” he said. “If that was the case, than how in the world would the Pentagon prosecute any terrorism case? There is a process in any case — whether military or civilian — to deal with any potential bias of a juror. It’s a fundamental part of the judicial system to ensure that juries are impartial.”

When presenting its case against Maj. Hasan, prosecutors will undoubtedly point to email chains between the defendant and al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, Mr. Zaid noted.

“There’s clearly going to be terrorist angles in the process,” he said. “And calling it terror is not going to change the nature of the incident or the [jurors’] knowledge about it.”

It’s a continuing pattern from this administration who doesn’t want to admit to the fact that there’s a war going on in this country under their watch and they think that by mincing words, we’ll believe it. In the meantime, there are soldiers who are being cheated out of the status and medical treatment they deserve, screwed by geography and political cowardice.

In the wake of the Fort Hood murders in 2009, which has been called “workplace violence” by this administration, the Defense Science Board generated a study to help the military recognize violent behavior and the potential risks for another event, like Major Nidal Hasan’s. The Board has a keen eye for the obvious, well sometimes. From an Army Times link sent to us by Chief Tango;

The Defense Science Board report urges military officials not to ignore signs of religious radicalism that may be politically sensitive, and sought to debunk the notion that Islam is the only religion that fuels extremism.

“Covering over or ignoring radical religious belief as a potential factor will greatly handicap efforts to discover and divert individuals who are on a trajectory toward engaging in targeted violence,” the report said.

“While a number of cases involved radical Islam, there were examples involving Christianity, and the potential exists for radicalization to occur in the context of other religions as well.”

Yeah, so which other religions have blasted away at a room full of unarmed people while chanting that “God is great”? The Amish? Buddists? What the report actually says about the subject is;

The Task Force reviewed case studies which indicated radical religious doctrines have played an important role in several high profile cases of targeted violence both within and outside the military. Violent actors were sometimes radicalized by association with other religious radicals and sometimes “self-radicalized.” While a number of cases involved radical Islam, there were examples involving Christianity, and the potential exists for radicalization to occur in the context of other religions as well.

There it ends. You’d think a study would have a footnote to an example or more fully explain this point, but it doesn’t. There is no more mention of the word Christianity in the entire document. You just have to take their word for it that a gang of Mormons are going to ride up on their 3-speed bicycles wearing those white Oxford shirts, take off their little helmets and wipe out a bunch of soldiers.

The Army Times sums up;

The study found “no silver bullet” to address the threat of workplace violence, and said predicting it is extremely difficult. Current scientific methods for predicting workplace violence, such as psychological or physiological testing, are unreliable, the study found.

Thanks, Defense Science Board, for all you do. this report is nothing more than a distraction. Apparently, the whole point of the DSB’s study was to prove that they’re willing to throw themselves on the radical Islam grenade for the Pentagon.

We know psychological testing wouldn’t have worked in the case of Hasan, since he was a psychiatrist. A silver bullet in that case would have been the Army getting over itself in regards to political correctness and putting Hasan out of the Army instead of carrying him along while he exuded Islamic radicalism. And, yes, I think they should throw out every radical Christian they come across, too.

The Stars & Stripes writes about Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond Chandler who visited and took questions from the members of the 3rd Stryker Bridgade, 2nd Infantry Division in Zangabad, Afghanistan. the soldiers seemed as concerned as the rest of us about being shot by their “allies” in the Afghanistan National Army and the Afghanistan National Police, but Chandler was a bit dismissive of their concerns;

“With all the green on blues, why are we still doing joint patrols (with Afghan troops)?” one soldier asked.

“I would assume we are still doing it because that’s what command tells you,” Chandler said. “What should we do?”

“Not patrol with the Afghanis (sic),” the soldier said.

As the Army’s top enlisted soldiers, matters of morale are at the heart of Chandler’s job and nothing has been more deflating to troops than the prospect of being shot in the back by their supposed allies.

Another Zangabad soldier voiced concerns the attacks were coming on orders from up high.

“Is Big Army doing any investigation to see if this is deliberate within the (Afghan National Army) command?” he said.

Chandler acknowledged the attacks are a dire threat and said the Pentagon has been sending additional intelligence and criminal investigation experts to Afghanistan to help stop the attacks. With international combat troops set to leave at the end of 2014, giving way to a smaller advisory force, trust between the coalition and the Afghan security forces is crucial.

“Overall there is a sense of a lack of trust, but you’ve got to rebuild that relationship and I have a lot of confidence in these guys,” Chandler said.

Yeah, if I didn’t have to go out on patrol with them, I’d say I have confidence with “these guys”, too.

Speaking of green-on-blue “insider” attacks, maybe someone can ask the good Sergeant Major why it took five days to release the name of Sergeant First Class Daniel Metcalf, that soldier who was killed in the incident back on September 29th which we discussed. yeah, it just went up this morning. Names of 3 soldiers who were killed on October 1st were released yesterday. And how’s that investigation going into whether insurgents instigated that particular September 29th incident?

The article doesn’t say whether he did or not, but I hope Chandler lectured the troops on how tattoos reduce their combat effectiveness.

Updated: I guess they’d have to release SFC Metcalf’s name today since it’s also the day of his funeral. I guess he was a homeboy, too. I lived in Macedon for awhile and began kindergarten there a few years back.