Elf Sternberg

Nonsense. We have ample evidence that Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists have sects with "religious leaders" that lead to an increase in violence among the participants. To claim that Islam is unique in that regard is to be willfully ignorant.

I won't deny that Islam has many more such sects, and that the unreconstructed pro-violence factions are loud and proud and thick on the ground.

What I do want to refute is the notion that this is or can be the sole explanation for Nidal Hassan's actions. The day after Hassan's rampage, another rampage happened in Orlando, FL. You choose to conveniently assume Hassan's attack was jihadi in nature, but it is just as valid, indeed possibly even more valid, to characterize both attacks as workplace rampages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_postal).

Thousands of Muslims work in the US Military, and thus far we have only one example of one of them committing such violence. We also have records of non-Muslim soldiers doing the same thing (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/11/iraq/main5005795.shtml).

There must be more to the story than "He was a muslim." That answer is enough Vicious Christian Nationalist sheep (http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147489388), but not enough for coherent, thoughtful American citizens who actually, you know, give a damn about what the preamble to the Declaration of Independence reads.

So, when you figure out how to separate the troublemakers from loyal soldiers (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/01/jon-krakauer-mcchrystals_n_341545.html), let us know.

And all of this calls into question the whole point of the war in Afghanistan anyway. What's the point of "going over there" to prevent this kind of thing-- now an irresponsible exercise (http://www.ourfuture.org/makingsense/factsheet/iraq-war-costs) in building an unwilling and recalcitrant country when we haven't even finished rebuilding New Orleans-- if all it took to make us all terrified of our neighbors-- a malaise you are doing everything to stoke-- was American citizenship and access to handguns?