Make Me Thankful: Don’t Enlist!

Instead of tough, immediate action against every cog in the military machine that promoted, pampered and palliated the mass murderer Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, victims got a commission of inquiry.

Or in Pentagon Speak, “a broad 45-day review.”

The state’s response to the slaughter at Fort Hood of 13 of its own by a Muslim Army psychiatrist, who also wounded more than 30 in the shootings at the Texas military post on Nov. 5, will be met, first, with more bureaucracy — more salaries for more slackers — and, thereafter, with a brick-thick report!

When asked what he would do if he were in charge of a soldier who was making radical statements, Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs ─ and an adherent of the military’s look away doctrine ─ mumbled about the need “to ensure that we treat everybody fairly.”

Everybody but the good guys. For his part, Attorney General Eric Holder has since promised to “work with this committee on ways in which we can prevent such a tragedy from occurring again.” And Tom Rooney, a Republican congressman from Florida, has begun the “difficult” work of exculpation: “telltale signs that [Hasan] was a disgruntled major were not as apparent as the rumors you’ve heard,” he informed reporters.

Was the Congressman referring to Hasan’s attempts to convert his patients to Islam? Or maybe to his hobnobbing with known Jihadists online? How about Hasan’s praise of suicide bombers, and the Soldier-of-Allah embossed calling card? Maybe Rep. Rooney means to imply that Hasan delivering lectures on Islam, instead of on the requisite course work, was no “telltale sign.”

Besides, if the military cares so much about the psyche and soma of the neediest of its men and women ─ why did it knowingly inflict on them an all-round, lousy student and practitioner?

If Rep. Rooney has some comforting news for the guinea-pig grunts the military forsook to Hasan’s ministrations, he had better be more specific.

Back at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Hasan’s psychiatric supervisors ─ they practice a faith even more wicked than his own ─ had surmised, in their infinite wisdom, that he was probably delusional but not dangerous. These experts decided to give Hasan … time.

Sure, Maj. Scott Moran ─ he runs the residency program at Walter Reed ─ cautioned about “a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.” Maj. Moran nevertheless recommended that Major Nidal go on to graduate. Apparently, he felt that Nidal would, in the fullness of time, experience a spontaneous improvement.

While it promotes and grants inordinate privileges and protections to incompetent Muslim miscreants ─ you don’t believe Hasan is an exception? ─ the military machine moves swiftly and speedily against patriotic Americans.

For coming out, Dan Choi, West Point graduate, Arabic linguist, and a Lieutenant in the United States Army, was fired in no time at all. No sooner did it become known that Choi was gay than he was dismissed. The same goes for “Sandy Tsao, who was booted from the military after telling her superiors she was gay back in January.”

When it comes to discharging gays and lesbians, the military is one fast and efficient bureaucracy.

You’ll be equally relieved to know that the same bloated behemoth is proceeding at full throttle against three U.S. Navy SEALs. Petty Officers Matthew McCabe, Jonathan Keefe and Julio Heurtas are accused by Ahmed Hashim Abed ─ thought to be behind the premeditated murder and mutilation of four U.S. contractors in Falluja in 2004 ─ of punching him.

As I’ve argued since September of 2002, Americans have no business in Iraq. But so long as our servicemen are there, they should not be hobbled in defending themselves, which is precisely what is happening. Before they are permitted to detain their attackers, soldiers are required to double up as cops, and go through a CSI-like protocol.

“Circumstances permitting,’ states a memo CNN obtained from the military, “evidence of criminal activity should include ‘photographs of the physical evidence,’ ‘photographs of the detainee at the crime scene or place of capture,’ as well as ‘photographs of the detainee next to the evidence.’ Other evidence should include a sketch of the crime scene, all physical evidence of the crime, and ‘statements written by first-hand witnesses to the criminal activity.'”

About the frustration of being forced to release most captured combatants, a soldier said this: “We’ve repeatedly found ourselves fighting the same enemy again and again.”

Thinking of enlisting? You’ll be fighting not for country and countrymen; but will be granting a banal bureaucrat a lien on your life.

As for the inquiry cobbled together to stop future Hasans: Permanent Secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby, a fictitious, but oh-so-real character in the brilliant British satires “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister,” would agree with me when I say that government commissions are where accountability goes to die.