PC at the Pentagon

It cost the lives of those at Ft. Hood. [Link]

Anyone who paid attention to news coverage after the rampage knows that the Army had plenty of warning about Hasan’s Islamist views.  Classmates say that he questioned whether he could fight against other Muslims and made presentations justifying the murder of non-Muslims, suggesting that Muslim-Americans in the armed forces might kill other servicemembers, defending Osama bin Laden, and justifying suicide bombers.  The servicemembers in the audience were so appalled that the instructor finally stopped one of Hasan’s presentations.  Off the record, it seems, everyone thought Hasan was dangerous, a nutjob, or an Islamist, and perhaps all three. 

On the record, though, no one would criticize him.  You don’t rise in the armed forces if you can’t read your superiors.  And the rising officers who met Hasan knew what their superiors wanted without having to be told.  Islam was a religion of peace, and Muslims in the Army were a welcome sign of diversity. Treating Hasan as a dangerous Islamist would put those messages at risk. 

Anyone who paid attention to news coverage after the rampage knows that the Army had plenty of warning about Hasan’s Islamist views.  Classmates say that he questioned whether he could fight against other Muslims and made presentations justifying the murder of non-Muslims, suggesting that Muslim-Americans in the armed forces might kill other servicemembers, defending Osama bin Laden, and justifying suicide bombers.  The servicemembers in the audience were so appalled that the instructor finally stopped one of Hasan’s presentations.  Off the record, it seems, everyone thought Hasan was dangerous, a nutjob, or an Islamist, and perhaps all three. 

On the record, though, no one would criticize him.  You don’t rise in the armed forces if you can’t read your superiors.  And the rising officers who met Hasan knew what their superiors wanted without having to be told.  Islam was a religion of peace, and Muslims in the Army were a welcome sign of diversity. Treating Hasan as a dangerous Islamist would put those messages at risk.

The problem with Political Correctness is you can't treat someone as an individual, but as a member of a group first. Which means anything you say about someone applies to the group they belong to as a whole, not as individuals.