Major Nidal Hasan
The trial of Major Hasan has been a national embarrassment, a black mark of which every American should be ashamed. Even as the major has all but swung from the chandeliers shouting that he did it all in the name of violent jihad, the Army has continued to toe the line, to insist that this clear act of jihadist terrorism was an act of workplace violence. The judge even attempted to instruct the jury that perhaps Major Hasan had merely lost his temper, prompting the major to correct her & insist that his murderous rampage had been the result of cold calculation, not the fruits of a fit of passion. Hasan screamed, "Allahu akbar!" as he commenced firing; gee, whatever could have been his motive? Yes, clearly he was just upset about workplace conditions. Maybe the copier jammed one too many times? I jest; such jesting is probably insensitive, but that it the level of respect that the Army & its political masters' farcical "workplace violence" narrative deserves. At the very least, the verdict has been passed down, & no longer is it obligatory to maintain the pretense that Major Hasan was only the "alleged perpetrator" of the Fort Hood Massacre: Hasan-link. We now await the sentence; our hope here at The Secret Base is that Hasan will hang for his crimes, the just punishment for all murderers.
Major Hasan would have pled guilty, except that prosecutors announced they would be seeking the death penalty. Military jurisprudence does not permit guilty pleas in capital cases. Which makes the following item all the more perplexing:
Staff Sergeant Robert Bales
Though disappointed by the sentencing of Sergeant Bales to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, I am inclined to conclude that in this case I should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good: Bales-link. The man should have hanged for his self-admitted "act of cowardice," the brutal murder of nearly a score of Afghan civilians. His crime is every bit as reprehensible as Major Hasan's, & Bales's body count higher, so my instinct is outrage at the court martial's acceptance of a guilty plea in exchange for a life sentence. Still, he had admitted his guilt & never again will be take a breath as a free man. Justice has been served, even as vengeance has not been satisfied. In the name of civilization, justice must suffice.
And now for something completely different:
Private Bradley Manning
The great thing about the Wikipedia is that anyone can edit an article, preventing groupthink amongst an insular board of editors from influencing the proceedings. The horrible thing about the Wikipedia is that anyone can edit an article, preventing responsible gatekeepers from protecting the resource from yahoos & vandals. Some bright spark has changed Private Bradley Manning's article to one about his female alter ego, "Chelsea Manning," including changing all the male pronouns to female: Manning-link. This is apparently in response Private Manning's request that he be so addressed, insisting, "I am a female." The chromosomal evidence argues otherwise. Private Manning also said of his illegal release of secret documents, "When I made these decisions I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people;" the point here is that Private Manning is prone to saying & believing things that are demonstrably untrue, thus casting doubt on the wisdom of accepting his claims that he is female. He is free to change his name to Chelsea, but has not yet done so; thus, his Wikipedia article should still be about Bradley "Chelsea" Manning, not Chelsea Manning. (Compare this to Buzz Aldrin still being Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin at the time of the first moon landing. In 1969, "Buzz" was just a nickname, not his actual name.)
It is delightful to think that while the Navy's far-famed aerial demonstration team, the Blue Angels, remain grounded due to ham-fisted reductions to defense expenditures that some of the moneys the Congress has allocated to the armed forces to provide for the security & defense of our great republic will instead go to pay for Private Manning's hormore replacement therapy during his incarceration.
A Savage Week of War
We call this feature "The Savage Wars of Peace" after a line in Rudyard Kipling's unfairly maligned & misunderstood poem "The White Man's Burden." We call this a savage war of peace because we are fighting a war for civilization itself, a war against a shadowy, elusive, cowardly enemy. This war has exacted a heavy price in blood & treasure, & in three courts martial this week that heavy price has been brought home. The enemy is the "other," but he is not always foreign. All three defendants, now all three convicts, are Americans. Major Hasan slaughtered his fellow soldiers in the name of the enemy's cause, casting his lot in with violent worldwide jihad; Staff Sergeant Bales slaughtered the innocent, the very civilians he'd been sent to Afghanistan to protect, serving no cause but the wickedness within his own broken soul; Private Manning spilt no blood, but betrayed his country by revealing to all the world, including the enemy, secrets that were not his to disclose, secrets he had sworn to protect with his very life, placing his own ego before the protection of his fellow citizens. Three Americans, three traitors. This war has exacted a heavy price in blood & treasure; Americans have turned against Americans, the weak & the wicked have turned upon the brave & the innocent. The great danger of any war is not that one will lose one's life or limbs, but that one will lose one's very soul to the chaos & the carnage. We mark this week the conviction of three Americans, each of whom lost his soul in this savage war of peace. We are fighting for nothing less than civilization itself; I can promise you nothing except that more blood will be split & more souls will be lost before this war is won.
I spied a bumper stick to-day, bearing the emblem of the United States Marine Corps. It read, "America: Land of the free because of the brave." Spare a thought, or better yet a prayer, for the brave who defend the land of the free. Pray for their lives & their souls.
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