Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Obama honors murdered but carefully skirts the issue of the murderer

http://tinyurl.com/yc6b2so
Obama salutes Fort Hood victims, condemns murdersBy BEN FELLER, Associated PressFORT HOOD, Texas – One by one, President Barack Obama spoke the names and told the stories...honoring their memories even as he denounced the "twisted logic" that led to their deaths."No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor," Obama told the crowd on a steamy Texas afternoon. "And for what he has done, we know that the killer will be met with justice — in this world and the next."
He did not name Maj. Nidal Hasan,...****At least he acknowledges that "someone," unspecified as a Muslim jihadi,acting on some kind of "twisted logic" of his "faith", did this. Calling for "justice" in the next world is hardly unambiguous since the "justice" that Maj. Hasan expects includes 72 black-eyed virgins and a sex life he seems to have been unable to effectuate in this life.****
Even as Obama honored the dead, there was government finger-pointing over what had been known about Hasan and whether he should have been investigated further. U.S. officials said a Pentagon worker on a terrorism task force had looked into Hasan's background months ago and had concluded he did not merit further investigation. Two officials said the group had been notified of communications between Hasan and a radical Islamic imam overseas and the information had been turned over to a Defense Criminal Investigative Service employee assigned to the task force.****What kind of lousy management lets individuals make definitive decisions without logs being made subject to oversight by superiors? They're setting up two poor schmoes as scapegoats whereas those who designed the "system" are at fault.More important, the politically-correct system--designed from the TOP down--that makes great the risk of seeming Islamophobic, is responsible for the schmoes to follow the basic principles, as they probably did. ****
Obama remembered the slain not as shooting victims but as husbands and fathers, immigrants and scholars, optimists and veterans of the war in Iraq. He cited one woman who was pregnant when she was gunned down.
The president spoke to loved ones left behind, saying: "Here is what you must also know: Your loved ones endure through the life of our nation." "Every evening that the sun sets on a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — that is their legacy," he said. ****This what passes for eloquence but is unspecific enough to have come out of the cliche-speaker's handbook.****... It was Obama's moment to take on the job of consoler-in-chief, a role that can help to shape a presidency at a time of national tragedy.****"Consoler-in-chief?" Necessary but hardly sufficient.**** The president has tried to strike a balanced tone: He has promised a full investigation of the Fort Hood shootings but has said little about it as investigators search for a motive. He said Tuesday it was "hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy." ... His agenda Wednesday: another war council meeting on Afghanistan, and laying a Veterans Day wreath at Arlington National Cemetery.****Dithering on a decision that should have been made months ago and ceremonial functioning? Hardly the day's work for a president entrusted with national security.****

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