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War, War, War See other War, War, War Articles Title: Cut out Washington noise: Let's pay respect to the men who died last week serving the U.S. Cut out Washington noise: Let's pay respect to the men who died last week serving the U.S. Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Opinion columnist Published 8:13 a.m. CT Dec. 10, 2019 | Updated 8:18 a.m. CT Dec. 10, 2019 With everything happening in D.C., it's easy to get distracted. But last week, three of our service members died, and our nation needs time to mourn. My fellow Knoxvillian Alex Haley used to say, “Find the good and praise it.” And rather than write about the impeachment clown show or other aspects of Washington dysfunction, I’m going to follow his advice. And this weekend, the good was not hard to find. It came in the form of Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson of Coffee County, Alabama, Airman Mohammed Haitham, 19, of St. Petersburg, Florida and Airman Apprentice Cameron Scott Walters, 21, of Richmond Hill, Georgia. All three were present, with Watson being officer of the deck, at Pensacola Naval Air Station when a Saudi national, Mohammed Alshamrani, who was there for training, opened fire on a classroom. When shots were fired, they didn’t run away or shelter in place. In the words of base commander Capt. Tim Kinsella, "When confronted...they ran towards it and saved lives. If not for their actions, and the actions of the Naval Security Force that were the first responders on the scene, this incident could have been far worse." These young men died heroes Watson was shot five times but managed to meet up with first responders and give them a description of the shooter that helped them to find and kill him. The ensign was 23, the age of many of the law students that I teach. Airmen Haitham and Walters were the age of undergraduates. The remains of Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson, fatally shot at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, are transferred at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Dec. 8, 2019. (Photo: Cliff Owen/AP) Although it’s fashionable to mock millennials and Generation Z as a “snowflake” generation, these men did not melt under pressure. They ran toward the sound of the guns and, though unarmed, took action. John 15:13 says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And Gen. George S. Patton said that, “It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” 18 years after 9/11: Terrorism needs to be prevented at the source Both have a point, but it’s hard to feel that these young men who displayed such courage and self-sacrifice wouldn’t have brought a lot more to the world if they had been given the time. We can only be grateful that at a crucial moment, they chose as they did, even as we mourn that such a choice was forced on them. But having found the good in their sacrifice and praised it, I feel that I would be dishonoring that sacrifice if I didn’t point out that, once again, this seems to be a case of the military clutching serpents — in the form of Islamist terrorists — to its breast, and then being surprised when they bite. The three heroes were all unarmed, because under naval policy, bases are largely gun-free zones — so much so that Alshamrani was shot by two county sheriff's deputies, not by naval personnel. Though there were people standing watch, standing and watching was apparently all they were meant to do; an unarmed guard is something closer to a hall monitor than a genuine guard. This is a policy that needs to be rethought in the wake of several shootings at military facilities where the gun-free zones delayed an armed response, ranging from Fort Hood, to the Washington Navy Yard, to the Chattanooga recruiting center shootings. When will the Pentagon take Islamic extremism seriously? Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in a massacre inspired by his Islamist sympathies, had given numerous advance signs of trouble. As military columnist Col. Austin Bay (Ret.) wrote: "What spurred Hasan's treason? From the get-go, non-benighted humans identified Islamic jihadi ideology as the psycho-political insanity guiding his crime. Hasan had known contact with terrorist recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki. But the FBI did not investigate the warnings signaling Hasan's Islamic conversion. An official who recommended the FBI investigate was told an interview was 'politically sensitive.'" 13 people died, and numerous others were shot because of this concern with sensitivity. Similarly, Pensacola shooter Alshamrani showed obvious signs of Islamist sympathies, praising Osama bin Laden and hosting a dinner party featuring jihadi snuff films. Yet even now the Pentagon brass is reluctant to call the shooting an act of terrorism, even as 10 other Saudis are being detained over the shooting, with more unaccounted for, according to the Associated Press. They haven't gone away: On anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks, terrorists readying to attack again. If investigating or even noticing jihadi sympathies is too politically sensitive to contemplate, then we are going to miss more such events and place further demands on young men who run to the sound of the guns. Those young men’s bravery is admirable, but it is the duty of those placed over them not to call on it unnecessarily. Those people need to do some reflecting. Poster Comment: The Saudi Madrassa's are the source of all fundamentalist Islamic extremism. Anwar al-Awlaki is the real villain here. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: BTP Holdings (#0)
"Serving the US" all over the world in illegal wars and murdering innocent people.
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