Sometimes you can just tell that Bill O'Reilly resents the fact that he is undeservedly portrayed as a conservative. Yeah, he's a patriotic guy, like your next door neighbor, and he's right of center on most issues; but he's basically an American populist.
Friday night, O'Reilly through his Talking Points Memo and an extremely vacuous interview with Geraldo Rivera got too cute by half in trying to prove what a "Fair and Balanced" dude he really is.
Despite all the eyewitnesses which prove premeditation, O'Reilly tried to play wise sage and halve the baby between whether Ft. Hood killer Dr. Hasan was a terrorist who planned his attack, or was just a PTSD psycho who snapped—the only evidence of which is the assertions of MSNBC hosts.
His guest Col. Ralph Peters was having none of it. "Bill, I don't think there is any contradiction," Peters snapped, "Terrorists are not by nature happy campers, suicide bombers aren't necessarily from the middle of the Bell Curve."
Watch the whole interview here, it doesn't require a lot of comment from me, but here are a few highlights to whet your appetite.
"What happened yesterday at Fort Hood is the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. It was committed by a Muslim fanatic who shouted Allah is great, and gunned down 44 unarmed soldiers and civilians. And our president tells us not to rush to judgment to wait until all the facts are in. What facts are we waiting for? This was an Islamist terrorist attack, and I'm sorry if it's inconvenient for Washington to face the facts.
He acquired the weapons that takes a couple days. He gave away his possessions, basically closed out his apartment, he clearly was planning it for at least several days. It was a cold-blooded act.
What troubles me more than the fact that this was a terrorist act and the mainstream– lame stream–media won't deal with it as such, it troubles me that our army has become so politically correct that they didn't get rid of this guy.
I want our President to take a stand. Stop all this "Oh there is no Islamist terrorism," Fort Hood, the new 911. Let's be honest about it.
This guy's been a sad sack and a troublemaker for a long time. But because he was part of a protected species, a protected minority, the Army let him slide… and what happened 12 soldiers and 1 civilian dead, 28 seriously wounded in a few slightly wounded. And what do we say, 'Oops?" No it's time we get rid of the PC culture in the Army and the media and in society.
At some point we need to stop focusing on high, "Oh this poor Maj. Hassan how tormented he was," and remember– how many names do we know of the dead? What about the names of the wounded? Has the media covered the family lives have been destroyed? The lives that been destroyed? No it's all about poor Maj. Hassan and I am ready to puke!"
All I can say is Hoo-ah!