| Some time ago I wrote a post about how acts of terror committed by right-wing groups are often ignored by the media. I got slammed for that post by Jeff and Craig -- and rightfully so. Not because of content, but because of clarity.
In fact, I think I make myself much more clear in the comments to Jeff's post -- basically that no one religion or people "naturally" produces terror, that terrorism is complex, and the reasons for resorting to it are not as simple as your typical right-wing blogger's explanation for it. That is, them Arabs is naturally evil, and we Americans are naturally good.
And maybe to clarify it more, I'll cite another incident. This time of a (presumably) crazy guy who shot a member of the US military on the Fourth of July.
PhillyBurbs.com reported that a relative said [shooter Matthew] Marren was "angry at the government and wanted to make a statement" on Independence Day. Authorities found two suicide notes that "were indicative of an individual suffering from mental-health problems."
Here's the account from a traditional media source:
Investigators have no clear-cut motive for Schrieken's shooting, despite two suicide notes left behind by the gunman, Milavsky said. They have no evidence that Schrieken knew his assailant, he said.
"The shooter was a troubled and disturbed individual," Milavsky said. "We will not release the content of these notes.
Marren's parents temporarily disconnected their home phone in New Jersey. An aunt told the Burlington County Times that the suicide notes described Marren's anger at the government and a desire to demonstrate that anger on a national holiday.
Let's assume that Malkin is correct and that Marren's antigovernment stance was leftwing and not rightwing. (Although there's no evidence of Marren's politics in any report.) And let's ignore Malkin's pathetic attempts to tie the shooting to the mainstream antiwar movement based on rhetoric from a few crazy outliers. (Mainstream war opponents are anything but violent extremists and the craziest leftwing bloggers -- like me -- have never said 'kill Bush' or 'kill US servicemen.') Whatever.
Let's assume this guy was a lefty, was incited to kill a serviceman because of politics, and pushed over the edge by violent anti-war imagery and rhetoric.
That only underscores my point that political violence is not isolated to any group, regardless of political affiliation, religion, or color of skin.
The sooner we rid ourselves of the notion that there's something inherently violent about Islam and Middle Easterners, as if there's something in their genes that makes them blow themselves up, and the sooner we look for the real causes of international terror, the quicker we can address the problem. |
