The “E” Word

Grand Rants ^ | 02-04-11 | Stoutcat

[Stoutcat]

“Evil” is such an embarrassing word. It’s so… judgmental. So holier-than-thou. Remember how embarrassed Liberals were when Pres. Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and how they howled when Pres. Bush labelled Iran, Iraq, and North Korea the “axis of evil”? But if we can’t call evil what it is, how will we be able to recognize it when it appears, whether in the form of flying airplanes into skyscrapers or gunning down 14 people going about their daily business on a military post?

The short answer: we can’t. We overlook it. We pass the buck. We pretend it doesn’t exist. We willfully misunderstand its intent. We use euphemisms to avoid the “E” word. And then we pay the price.

The Senate has just released its report on the 2009 Ft. Hood massacre. Entitled “A Ticking Time Bomb: Counterterrorism Lessons from the U.S. Government’s Failure to Prevent the Fort Hood Attack,” the report is a scathing indictment of the lack of preparedness inside the Department of Defense and the FBI to deal with problems like this. Authors Sen. Joe Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins conclude that once again, lack of communication, the passing of the buck, and failure of imagination all combined in an attack that left 14 dead and, at least momentarily, horrified the nation...