Political correctness doesn’t begin to describe Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey Jr.’s outrageous comments, as alluded to by Jennifer, on the Sunday-morning talk shows concerning the Fort Hood massacre. Asked by ABC’s George Stephanopolous whether the Army had “dropped the ball” in not recognizing that Hasan had become increasingly radical, Casey repeated the official mantra of the Obama administration, that we shouldn’t “jump to conclusions” based on what he described as “early tidbits” about Hasan’s motives (say, shouting “Allahu Akbar” before firing 100 rounds of ammunition into his fellow soldiers).

Taken at his word, Casey’s chief concern seems to be not protecting American soldiers from death at the hands of a jihadist in their midst, but preventing a “backlash” against “diversity.”

The speculation could heighten the backlash. What happened at Ft. Hood is a tragedy and I believe it would be a greater tragedy if diversity became a casualty here.

Casey made similar statements on CBS and NBC. The statements were offensive on several levels. It’s as if our leaders — civilian and, in this case, military — believed that Americans are a pack of bigots who’ll be beating up innocent Muslims on the streets and vandalizing mosques if given the least excuse. That hasn’t happened, even in the aftermath of 9/11. In fact, Jews are nearly eight times as likely to be victims of religiously motivated hate crimes as Muslims are, according to FBI statistics. In 2007, the last year for which figures are available, 133 such crimes were reported against Muslims, compared with 1,010 against Jews.

The only ones jumping to conclusions about Hasan’s motives seem to be those in government. From President Obama on down, including the military chain of command, government officials seem to want to squelch legitimate questions about the role that Hasan’s religious views played in his decision to open fire at Fort Hood. That kind of willful myopia will breed suspicion and distrust among the American people and put servicemen and women at risk. And if Gen. Casey truly believes that “diversity” is more important than protecting his troops, he should hang up his uniform.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 8:03 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.