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.