Days of Change

Day 371 – Terrorism-ist

Fox News’ Red Eye has an amusing habit of mocking political correctness by adding -ist to the end of anything. You can be cat-ist, fat-ist, plant-ist, look-ist or opinion-ist. Right now, we are terrorism-ist.

Now, you would think that we are trying to be as unbiased as possible with regard to terrorism. Some would even say that we show too much deference toward potential terrorists. That only applies to Islamists, however. Like the Clinton administration before it, the current White House is biased toward “domestic” terrorism.

I use quotes because the instances combining terrorism with purely domestic forces is extremely small. One incident that is brought out often is Waco. That is not domestic terrorism. That was criminality. The group committed all its acts within the compound and not in the general community. Ruby Ridge was similar in that the standoff was with a separatist, not a terrorist.

Oklahoma City was a terrorist attack by domestic forces. The pretense was revenge for perceived wrongs by the government, much like Islamic terror. Incidents of attacks on abortion providers and clinics also represents narrowly focused terror, in an attempt to eliminate the places where abortions can be performed.

Then there are the missteps. If the 1993 WTC bombing was not directly al-Quaeda, it was certainly directed by the same minds involved in 9/11. There is also the Olympic Park bombing of 1996. An American was seen as the perpetrator for years, while current suspicion is that it was an uncredited al-Quaeda attack. You don’t hear Richard Clarke crow about his genius regarding that when he criticizes the Bush administration.

Domestic terror is poorly funded, uncoordinated and easily identified. It’s a slam-dunk for Janet Napolitano to focus on domestic terror since it only involves going after people who don’t have the Arab world defending them. Blaming soldiers recently back from Iraq and going to tea parties is even easier, because she has those lists. It’s too bad she didn’t consider Muslim extremists who are in the military right now and under investigation by the FBI.

Was Fort Hood a terrorist attack? The death toll is higher than the first WTC bombing. One man committed the act, but one man killed George Tiller. Was Hassan justified? The media is making a disturbing attempt to say that he was, at least in his own mind. I don’t give a damn about hate crimes or thought crimes or terrorism committed in one’s head. I care about terrorism committed in reality. I don’t need the FBI to watch someone long enough to give them the rope to hang himself. We can spring for the rope. And I’m sure writing that makes me rope-ist.