to know Christopher Hitchens destroyed the "war on terror" excuse for Hasan

When Major Hasan conducted the Fort Hood massacre, it was one of those relatively rare events where both the important facts of the case were crystal clear (within 24 hours or so) and the suspect's past had a rather long paper trail. Here we had a career Army man shouting Allahu Akbar while mowing down innocent comrades, only months after national agencies were alerted to the fact that this guy took his religion a little too seriously and was contacting a pro-jihadist imam who "spiritually guided" some 9/11 hijackers.

Not surprisingly, many people (especially liberals) were hesitant to reach conclusions centered around Hasan's faith, out of deference to political correctness, which others pointed out was exactly the type of deference that the Army and feds showed in ignoring Hasan's red flags throughout 2009.

But as the always in your face Christopher Hitchens notes, the explanations/excuses made for Hasan began to imply that the real cause of the massacre wasn't a pro-jihadist overly devout Muslim going nuts, it was either the harrowing war tales Hasan heard as part of his job or it was Hasan's (supposedly appropriate) growing level of disgust with America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Nobody has ever bothered trying to explain why others with the same job as Hasan have never snapped on their own comrades. But Hitchens illustrates even more bothersome aspects of liberal reaction to the Hasan case.

Hitchens' article responds to an editorial in the New York Times that is fairly reflective of others' attempts not to blame a violent and radical segment of Islamic teachings, specifically Wahhabism.

"The Fort Hood shooting," says Wright, "is an example of Islamist terrorism being spread partly by the war on terrorism—or, actually, by two wars on terrorism, in Iraq and Afghanistan." I know that contributors to the New York Times op-ed page are not necessarily responsible for the headlines that appear over their work, but the title of this one—"Who Created Major Hasan?"—really does demand an answer, and the only one to be located anywhere in the ensuing text is "We did."

Wright also discussed the case of  Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the convert who opened fire at a recruiting station in Little Rock.  "It was not known what path Muhammad … had followed to radicalization." Well, here's a clue: After being arrested he started babbling to the police about the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan."

This is where Hitchens begins to destroy such arguments and illustrates the glaring hypocrisy of these individuals who claim American actions against Muslims reflexively makes them murderous anti-American killers.

There isn't a day goes by without the brutal slaughter of Muslims in both countries by al-Qaida or the Taliban. And that's not just because most (though not all) civilians in both countries happen to be of the Islamic faith. The terrorists do not pause before deliberately blowing up the mosques and religious processions of those whose Muslim beliefs they deem insufficiently devout...It takes a true intellectual to survey this appalling picture and to say, as Wright does, that we invite attacks on our off-duty soldiers because "the hawkish war-on-terrorism strategy—a global anti-jihad that creates nonstop imagery of Americans killing Muslims—is so dubious." Dubious? The only thing dubious here is his command of language. When did the U.S. Army ever do what the jihadists do every day: deliberately murder Muslim civilians and brag on video about the fact? For shame. The slippery slope—actually the slimy slope—is the one down which Wright is skidding.

Hitchens hits the nail right on the head here.  It doesn't take a wonk to understand why jihadists invoke American involvement in the Middle East as a justification for their anti-American, pro-jihadist religious extremism.  First, it's a recruiting propaganda tool to recruit more jihadists, and second these jihadists can find both apologists to accept their claims and media outlets that will parrot their explanations.

The true irony of Americans looking at American actions in Iraq and Afghanistan for explanation is that American forces have been stuck in Iraq for so long because they were trying to break up sectarian Shiite-Sunni violence across Iraq, and attempting to prevent the Taliban from oppressing Afghani Muslims.