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November 11, 2009
Obama's Double Standard
According to NewBusters, while some mainstream media luminaries hewed to the course of political correctitude by withholding inconvenient details from their reporting on the Fort Hood massacre, Lou Dobbs was not one of them. Dobbs jumped all over Barack Obama, accusing him of holding a double standard for urging against "jumping to conclusions."
According to Dobbs, it was just a matter of compare and contrast - the treatment Hasan got from the President versus the treatment the arresting officer in the Cambridge Police situation got.
"So, there are the two Presidents Obama," Dobbs said. "You pick which one is most palatable to you and you try to explain to me if you will how the more recent statement squares with the previous statement."
But then Dobbs showed he was clearly aggravated by Obama's double standard, especially after the casualties of the Fort Hood tragedy.
"How dare he stand up there and sanctimoniously tell the American people not to rush to judgment, to jump to conclusions," an impassioned Dobbs said. "My God - there are 13 people dead, 29 of them wounded, 29 of our troops wounded at Fort Hood and so I'm going to jump to some conclusions here because all we have are eyewitnesses and surveillance tape and that's all I've got to go on."
And Dobbs wasn't afraid to call this an act of terrorism, as so many others have shied away from doing. The CNN host said he would indeed be jumping to conclusions and encouraged others to do so as well.
I wonder what Obama would have said if the shooter were a Christian?
Posted by Tom Bowler at 07:29 AM | Permalink
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Comments
I wonder what most people, especially the military judge and jury at Hasan's trial would think if he was a Christian. Most people would not jump to the terrorism conclusion and the Major would get off with a lighter sentence than say a Private in the same situation. Statistically officer's get lesser sentences than the lower ranks for the same crime. Dobb's was out of line calling Obama "sanctimonious" as the military has a long tried and true history of ignoring any issue regarding the mental health of its soldiers until after the fact. Our society has a long tried and true history of ignoring mental health issues as well as forgetting to provide care for the care giver. To say the massacre at Fort Hood is terrorism is irresponsible unless one is using the term in the broadest sense. I would like to believe that leaping to a conclusion such as the one Dobb's and many others have done because of the person's religion is unamerican, however it is as American as apple pie.
Posted by: Marian Bowler | Nov 16, 2009 12:11:31 PM
Marian, I ask the rhetorical question, what would Obama say if the shooter were a Christian, because I suspect the administration would express deep concern about the threat of violence from right-wing extremists. It wouldn't be the first time the administration made that kind of a charge. Back in April the Department of Homeland Security issued warnings, out of the blue, about a potential threat from returning veterans being recruited by "right-wing terrorists" groups. Veterans were annoyed.
Personally I don't have a problem with the president asking everybody not to jump to conclusions, but I also think hardly anybody has. It seems to me that the question of it being considered a terrorist act depends on whether or not it was an organized or an individual action, and whether or not it was done with a political purpose.
So far I haven't heard of anybody jumping up to claim responsibility for it, which is the usual sign that it's terrorist. But here we have Hasan hollering "Allahu Akbar" while killing 13 people. I don't think it's un-American to consider the role of religion in such a circumstance. In fact I would say it's very unwise to ignore it and unwise to rule out terrorism. At least until we are certain that the shooter was a complete nut case acting all by himself. After all, there are reports that Hasan had tried to contact al Qaeda.
I don't often, but I agree with Dobbs on this one. Obama leaped to the conclusion that the Cambridge police had acted stupidly when they arrested his professor friend, and I think the word "sanctimonious" applies. I would like to point out that African American members of the Cambridge police took great exception and offense at Obama's remarks.
Can you point me to the statistics that indicate tougher sentencing for enlisted than for officers?
Posted by: Tom Bowler | Nov 17, 2009 2:05:43 PM
