War On Terror: Another Islamist extremist has slaughtered unarmed American troops on home soil. Will this, too, be declared "workplace violence" — just like the last act of terrorism committed against our disarmed military?
Here's what we knew at press time: An apparent lone gunman shot a barrage of gunfire at two military facilities in Tennessee, killing at least four Marines and wounding a soldier and a police officer. The shooter was killed, and the media quickly identified him as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Kuwait.
Far be it from us to rush to judgment, but just before the shooting an ISIS-linked Twitter account tweeted out: "O Americans Dogs soon YOU Will see wonders #Chattanooga #USA #ISIS."
According to Jihad Watch, this tweet is similar to one sent out just before the attack on the "Draw Muhammad" cartoon event in Garland, Texas, last May, where two ISIS-linked gunmen opened fire.
So this was almost certainly a terrorist attack by an Islamic extremist.
But there's one key difference between this attack and the one in Garland: In Texas, the attack failed when an off-duty traffic cop took down the rifle-toting, body-armored Islamists Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson with a single Glock pistol.
That didn't happen in Tennessee. According to a screen grab posted on the Internet, Thursday's attacks were made on a gun-free military facility. Perhaps if the victims had been themselves carrying weapons, they would have been able to defend themselves.
By the way, this is tragically similar to the 2009 Fort Hood attacks by Major Nidal Malik Hasan that left 13 dead and 30 wounded. The Obama administration then termed the slaughter of unarmed U.S. soldiers an instance of "workplace violence" — not terrorism.
As at Ft. Hood, the Marines in Tennessee didn't appear to have any weapons. They were disarmed not by their attacker, but by a foolish federal policy that put them in danger. If even one of them had been armed, perhaps he could have stopped the attack.
If our troops are going to be serially targeted by terrorists, as it now appears, shouldn't they at least be able to carry side arms to protect themselves?http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/071615-762049-chattanooga-attacks-kill-four-marines-in-apparent-gun-free-zone.htm