When a Muslim murders members of the US military screaming "allahu akbar"...yes, that is terrorism.
This guy could have walked into Wal-Mart and started shooting people there. Why didn't he do that? It's a hell of a lot less risky to get your personal handgun into Wally World than it is Ft. Hood. He could have walked into a restaurant and started shooting people, but he didn't do that either. He targeted US Troops for a reason. It's not that hard to figure out.
Then it's more than just "bad Muslim" and "good Muslim". Let's start there for a change.
Many Iraqi Muslims that shot at and likely killed Americans switched sides and joined the Awakening - many are no doubt in the police and army. We may end up doing so with many of the Taliban in Afghanistan, where many of those allied with the Taliban do so not out of shared ideology with Al Q but merely because one band of foreigners are Muslim and hence somewhat familiar and the other, not. The distinctions and motives that define terror, insurgency, and plain murder (as well as, of course, when they overlap) are important in this war, and to write off a killer as a jihadist merely because he is Muslim, as your size 25 font indicates, is to vindicate Major Hassan's delusion that America is at war with Islam. In that respect, Hassan has much company in his delusion.
This is not a defense of Hasan, but a condemnation of the sloppy thinking that Muslim killer (of American troops, if you'd rather) = Islamofascist terrorist. Clearly we are willing to accept that not all of them are on the "same side" insofar as determining who is reconciliable. You say he "switched sides". Whose side did he choose? His personal Islam? Al Qaeda's brand of Islam? Islam as a global religion?
It's clear he chose the first. There's no indication that he subscribed to Al Qaeda ideology or even their particular brand of Islam - that is among the items under investigation.
We care that he's a Major because it's evidence he didn't hate America, as claimed earlier. He liked it enough to swear an oath and join despite the ridicule of his family. So it is of interest why and how he turned away from that, and how he came to feel he had to choose between country and god.
And to prove my point:
We're in a war -- to the death -- w/ an Islam that can't seem to get used to the idea of 'peaceful coexistence' with the West, the Jews, or anything remotely labeled 'infidel' ... and we all might as well get used to the concept of that war -- a long war -- a war to the death.
Hasan thought the exact same thing.
