{"id":1411,"date":"2012-03-13T02:07:17","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T06:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2012-03-25T17:06:12","modified_gmt":"2012-03-25T21:06:12","slug":"calling-a-spade-a-spade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2012\/03\/calling-a-spade-a-spade.html","title":{"rendered":"Calling a Spade a Spade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note<\/strong>:\u00a0 I will be filling in for Aziz Poonawalla on this site for the next couple of weeks, while he is off gallivanting around the world.\u00a0 These are undoubtedly big shoes to fill (even though technically\u00a0 I’m a size 13 and he’s a 9), but I’ll do my best.\u00a0 Aziz, in addition to being a good friend, is my mentor in all things blogging and I have long read his blog and aspired to be in the same league.\u00a0 For those who are interested, these posts will also be available on my own blog Notes from The Heart<\/a> as well.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recently, a US soldier in Afghanistan left his base at about 3 AM.\u00a0 He walked about half a mile to a nearby village, entered three different homes, and shot dead at least 16 Afghani civilians (at least twelve of whom were women and children).\u00a0 In the first home, where eleven of the victims were located, he gathered the bodies to burn them.\u00a0 He then returned to base and turned himself in to authorities.\u00a0 At the current time, his motives are unclear.\u00a0 Much information about the killings and the killer has not yet been released.\u00a0 What is known is that many of the victims were asleep at the time of the killings.<\/p>\n

The US Government has issued a necessary but predictable statement of remorse<\/a>, assuring that an investigation will soon be undertaken, and appropriate legal actions will be pursued (US soldiers in Afghanistan fall under US legal jurisdiction).\u00a0 The question remains, exactly what crime was committed here?\u00a0 Was this act part of the “fog of war” and thus representative of collateral damage?\u00a0 Perhaps the shooter is not guilty by reason of insanity, due to PTSD and a possible history of previous brain trauma?\u00a0 The killing may represent first degree murder (based on the premeditation inherent in walking a mile to the nearest town).\u00a0 But, intriguingly, the news media has yet to use the word “terrorism”.<\/p>\n

The first two, more lenient, possibilities also seem the least likely to be successful.\u00a0 The shooter clearly had not been engaged actively by an enemy at the time of the shooting, and collateral damage can only be claimed if he had targeted a real or perceived enemy.\u00a0 The insanity defense is very likely to be used and is already being used in the media, where all sorts of excuses (ranging from stress to alcohol to a bad marriage) are being floated for his actions.\u00a0 It is interesting that these same excuses would be considered absolutely inadequate if the killings had occurred against an American town on American soil.\u00a0 However, this strategy is unlikely to succeed legally and politically, as the shooter clearly knew what he did was wrong (he immediately turned himself over to authorities), and because the government will want to show swift and severe judgment in order to avoid unrest and backlash.<\/p>\n

The question then becomes, is this \u00a0US soldier a terrorist?\u00a0 Here is a person who has targeted innocent civilians and killed them in cold blood.\u00a0 If his motivations were motivated by pure psychopathy then he is nothing more than a deranged cold blooded mass-murderer.\u00a0 \u00a0If, however, his motivations included any element of religious or political ideology, then his actions must be considered an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n

When Major Nidal Hasan (also a member of the US Military) opened fire at Fort Hood, he was immediately branded a terrorist<\/a>.\u00a0 He had, after all, murdered innocents (sort of–members of the military industrial complex are considered reasonable targets by the Geneva Convention) and was motivated by political ideology.\u00a0 But, when Joseph Stack<\/a> flew his plane into the IRS building (sound familiar?), clearly motivated by a political ideology, he was branded a deranged anti-government crusader and some Americans even considered him a hero<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact, in an official statement “government officials were quick to rule out any involvement of terrorism in the incident.”<\/p>\n

Let us hope that we have not devolved so much as a society as to believe that the definition of terrorism is inherently related to one’s own religion, or the nationality of the victims.\u00a0 While this seems clearly to be the case with the news media,\u00a0 the FBI official definition of terrorism includes no such reference:<\/p>\n

\u201cthe unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives\u201d (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85)<\/em><\/p>\n

While it is a major\u00a0tenet\u00a0of US law that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, it is a painful fact that if in fact our soldier was motivated by any religious or political objective then he has committed an act of terrorism.\u00a0 If we are to maintain consistency with our rule of law, not to mention any semblance of credibility in the global community, then we must have the strength to call a spade a spade.<\/p>\n

RELATED: The Daily Beast editorial board had a very interesting internal discussion<\/a> on what they should call terrorism, related to the Joseph Stack incident.\u00a0 They also had the courage to post it online in its entirety.\u00a0 It is worth a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note:\u00a0 I will be filling in for Aziz Poonawalla on this site for the next couple of weeks, while he is off gallivanting around the world.\u00a0 These are undoubtedly big shoes to fill (even though technically\u00a0 I’m a size 13 and he’s a 9), but I’ll do my best.\u00a0 Aziz, in addition to being a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":487,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,71,174,35],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hirabah-watch","tag-guest-post","tag-terrorism","tag-war-on-terror","tag-wombat"],"yoast_head":"\nCalling a Spade a Spade - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Calling a Spade a Spade - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Note:\u00a0 I will be filling in for Aziz Poonawalla on this site for the next couple of weeks, while he is off gallivanting around the world.\u00a0 These are undoubtedly big shoes to fill (even though technically\u00a0 I’m a size 13 and he’s a 9), but I’ll do my best.\u00a0 Aziz, in addition to being a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2012\/03\/calling-a-spade-a-spade.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-13T06:07:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-03-25T21:06:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ajamali\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Calling a Spade a Spade - 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