By Patrick J. Buchanan
Nidal Malik Hasan was two men.
One was the proud Army major who wore battle fatigues to mosque; the other, the proud Arab who wore Muslim garb in civilian life.
What brought Hasan’s identities into fatal conflict was his belief that Iraq and Afghanistan were unjust wars, and his shock that he, a Muslim, was to be sent to serve in one of those wars, against fellow Muslims—a sin against Allah meriting damnation.
Hasan was conflicted by a dual loyalty—to the country he had sworn to protect, and to his perceived duty as a Muslim. When Hasan told his neighbor that morning, “I am going to do good work for God,” the call of jihad overrode his oath of loyalty as an American soldier.
Hasan proceeded to shoot, wound or kill 44 U.S. soldiers, and die on what he saw as the side of right, the side of Islam, against America. “Allahu Akbar!”—”God is great!”—Hasan shouted as he began firing.
An Internet posting by “Nidal Hasan” compared suicide bombers to Medal-Of-Honor winners who throw themselves on grenades to save fellow soldiers. Hasan had decided to become a suicider for Allah.
Though this was an act of treachery against his fellow soldiers, of treason in wartime, of terrorism and mass murder, Hasan must have seen himself as a hero and martyr.
Few ever commit atrocities like this. But conflicts in identities and loyalties are common in the cauldrons of war.
“Let none but Americans stand guard tonight,” said Washington at Valley Forge. Irish Catholics deserted the Union army to fight beside Mexican Catholics in the San Patricio battalion against what they thought was American aggression. Honored today by Mexico, the San Patricios were hanged when captured by Winfield Scott’s army.
In Scott’s march to Mexico City was Robert E. Lee. The hero of Buena Vista was Col. Jefferson Davis, who had married the daughter of his commanding officer, future President Zachary Taylor. Davis went on to serve in the Cabinet of Franklin Pierce and the U.S. Senate.
Yet, in 1861, Davis and Lee would depart the service of their country to wage war against the United States on behalf of their new nation and the kinfolk to whom they belonged and whom they believed had a right to be free of the Union. Were they traitors—or patriots?
This is not to compare the deeds of the San Patricios, Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, all of whom declared themselves openly and fought heroically and honorably, with the crimes of Maj. Hasan.
But it is to raise the issue of conflicting loyalties in the hearts of men in a nation that has declared religious, racial and ethnic diversity to be not only a national good but a national goal.
Whence came this idea? No previous generation believed this.
In World War I, Wilson feared that if he went to war, German-Americans might march on Washington. FDR was so fearful that the blood ties of Japanese citizens and residents would trump their loyalty to the United States he ordered 110,000 transferred from California to detention camps for the duration of the war.
In Arkansas last year, a Muslim opposed to the U.S. wars shot two soldiers at a recruitment center, killing one. In Kuwait, before the invasion of Iraq, a Muslim soldier threw a grenade into the tent of his commanding officer, killing two and wounding 14.
This is not to suggest that all American Muslims or Arabs should be citizens under suspicion. Muslims have died fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, as German-Americans died fighting against Germany in two world wars. But it is to say this:
America is unraveling. No longer are we one nation and one people. Tens of millions have come and tens of millions are coming whose first loyalty is to the kinfolk and country they left behind, and to the faith they carry in their hearts. And if, in our long war against “Islamofascism,” we are seen as trampling on their nation, faith or kinsmen, they will see us, as Hasan came to see us, as the enemy of their sacred identity.
There is no American Melting Pot anymore. It was discarded by our elites as an instrument of cultural genocide. Now we celebrate America as the most multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural country on earth, the Universal Nation of Ben Wattenberg’s warblings.
And, yet, we are surprised by ethnic espionage in our midst, the cursing of America from mosques in our cities, the news that Somali immigrants are going home to fight our Somali allies, and that illegal aliens march under Mexican flags to demand American citizenship.
Eisenhower’s America was a nation of 160 million with a Euro-Christian core and a culture all its own. We were a people then. And when we have become, in 2050, a stew of 435 millions, of every creed, culture, color and country of Earth, what holds us together then?
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Pat, you're missing the point. Islam is a defective religion. There can be no peace with Muslims, because there will always be at least a small percentage of them who will follow the teachings of Muhammed that orders them to kill us. With nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction becoming more widely available, this is a risk that we cannot tolerate. At the very least, we need to separate ourselves from them completely. Diversity that includes Muslims is suicide.
I don't believe that's true friscokid. For thousands of years Arab Christians (and Jews) lived among Muslim Palestinians with relatively few skirmishes. I also went to school with and have worked with many Muslims who have never mentioned religion, nor been anything but regular, decent people to me. Nobody's tried to convert me, nor have they picked on Christianity.
That said, imagine you left America because it became corrupt (hard, I know), and moved to Turkey–a Muslim country that is friendly to Christians. Some Canadians decide to pull off a terrorist attack on Turkey, and now Turkey is at war with America. You are deployed to go and kill Americans who are fighting against Turkey's invasion and occupation.
Are you not capable of seeing how you might not lose it, given that scenario? Or would you have no problem going and killing your fellow Christian-Americans?
Throughout history, both Christians and Muslims have terrorized each other. This is also true now, and there are many opinions as to who is terrorizing who, and to what degree. I’m just saying that I find it unacceptable as a Christian to have to wonder which Muslim is going to kill me, because friction between Muslims and Christians is higher now than it has been in the recent past. I understand that, practically speaking, Muslims and Christians have to have contact with one another; it’s just that as a Christian, I personally can’t tolerate Muslims. At the very least, they should be removed from the military if they even hint at being sympathetic to the people we are fighting.
We are in a No Quarter war with Islam, only one will walk away regardless of what the PC crowd babbles.
All non-Christian religions are defective!
Christians who commit acts of terrorism and violence – do so in disregard of their scriptures.
Jews and Muslims who commit acts of terrorism and violence – do so in accordance with their scriptures.
Doesn't his point subsume yours? He's not declaring Muslim faith a compatible religion. He is rightly designating multicultural politically correct government policies as the scion of our destruction as a nation without any identity.
He is correct. Multiculturalism and the liberal elite have created leaks in the dam, vulnerabilities that will only increase over time. Anti-constitutionalists like Obama are so focused on destroying the national identity that indeed, if we are for everyone else who are we? I recently saw at my daughter's school a display titled " Tennis is for everyone" and heralded players from Spain, Italy, etc. No John Macenroe.
Our politicians have fed into the race machine so heavily, that no one has realized the matrix is setup to destroy Euro-ethnic cultural and by now, its remnants. The government's idolatry in worshiping race, which is attended to by the high priests in elite positions, is truly destroying America, and will have the ironic outcome that wasn't intended: balkanization.
We are heading to never never land, we are going down a one way street. We are almost at the end.One way, we can't and won't turn around. Not all Muslims are terrorits for sure, although all of the terrorists that have attacked us have been Muslims. Period.
Obama didn't hesitate to tell us that Prof. Gateswas a victim,"we don't have all the facts yet, but the police acted stupidly".Now he wants us to wait until all the facts are in. How many more witnesses do we need Watson?
Liberals love victims, if one is not available, they can create one. The prisoners at Gitmo have become victims now, we are going to pay for every damned thing these people have, if the liberals get there way. Remember, they are the victims, we were wrong. when I was in the Army,we didn't give our enemies homes in places like Bermuda. We need to distance our selves from these people, this Whitehouse is not like us, they don't share our values.Worse, they are &^$%# all over us. Can you say treason? Isn't that a death sentence?I don't care if he is a Monk. This is terrorism!
It is clearly obvious that he declared war on the U.S. Let's stop the PC and tell it like it is.
How many more of these Jihadists are walking amongst ourselves? This country needs to get a lot tougher on these "religious clerics" that shout hate outside their places of worship but refuse to admit they promote war with "the infidels" . They will stop acting out, when we act out upon them.
Hate crimes and the like is a two way street.
Hasan is no more representative of Muslims than Oklahoma City Bomber McVeigh was of Christians. After all, it isn’t small packs of disaffected Muslims or Christians who put our values and our society at risk. The culprits are ourselves. We lack confidence in our own values and we fail to honor them.
We borrow money we can’t repay to buy houses and cars we can’t afford. Financiers go on a bender buying and trading these toxic “assets.” The bankers catch a cold; the irresponsible borrowers catch pneumonia. And what do we do? Demand that the government fix it.
And the government? In our name, they wage discretionary wars with no hope of victory, and they hide the costs through off-budget shenanigans. And we let them.
Nor can we lay this national moral collapse at the feet of recent immigrants. No matter how porous or impervious our borders should be, the day-to-day reality is that immigrants come here to breathe free and to work and invest their way to wealth.
The ultimate answer to Pat’s question won’t depend on the cultures of origin of our 2050 citizens and other residents. Either we will have regained our grasp of and respect for our founding principles, or we will have slipped further into self-indulgence and irresponsibility.
The foundation of our principals was British and Christian, but the rebuilding of these core ideas is as likely to be done by Americanized Muslims and Hindus as by Christians and Jews.
Pat, Lets face it muslims follow a religion that is anti-human. It more of a cult started by mohd in saudi that preaches hatred , death , looting destruction of culture, temples of all non muslims.
To understand this cult is first step to protecting America and the world.
I’m from india and its the same liberal policy of congress party that has created a bigger mess in india…America is unfortunately going down the same road.
To understand islam , Read more at historyofjihad.org