How the Ft. Hood Shooter Brings Radical Clerics and Right-Wing Nuts Together

What Goldberg, Ross (or his sources), Leiberman, et. al. are trying to do is establish an equivalence between “Muslim person who kills people” and “global conspiracy of Muslims who kill people,” so that they can advance a political agenda that involves deploying U.S. resources in a particular way to defeat a particular threat.

The funny thing is, the terrorists agree with them. Hasan’s radical former imam, Anwar al Awlaki, wrote on his web site that “Nidal Hasan is a hero” who performed “an Islamic duty.” It’s precisely the same ideological jump: Hasan didn’t act alone, he is part of a broader struggle by religious fanatics. And it’s made for the same reason: to advance a political agenda. The neocons want to keep pressure on the idea that there is a vast army of scary Muslims always on the verge of killing us. And so do the terrorists.