After the recent Fort Hood shootings, right wing pundits are calling for Muslims in the military to be investigated and in some cases barred from the military. While we're at it we should investigate right wing white extremists too, as they cause a threat to our country.
What is ironic is that while right wing pundits attack Islam as a cause for the horrific massacre, they continue to fuel the flames for right wing terrorists who have massacres of their own.
For years, right wing, white supremacist extremists have been infiltrating the military. Two of the most famous right wing military veterans, Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, were responsible for the biggest terrorist attack in the United States previous to 9/11, killing 168 people including small 19 children in an attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.
It is interesting that with Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement, the right wing, who are now so concerned with Islamic extremists in the military, are promoting the same ideals that the extremist terrorist duo of Nichols and McVeigh were fueled by.
Like many from the right, McVeigh was once a registered Republican member of the NRA and distributed gun rights literature. Like many people in the Tea Party movement, McVeigh was against taxes and big government. The following quotes attributed to McVeigh could easily have come from someone in the Tea Party movement.
Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate "promises," they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up. We suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight... Is a Civil War Imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system? I hope it doesn't come to that. But it might.
The right wing ranting about socialist governments that we see from Fox News, Glenn Beck and teabaggers was also part of McVeigh's rhetoric.
I believe we are slowly turning into a socialist government. The government is continually growing bigger and more powerful and the people need to prepare to defend themselves against government control.
I know in my heart that I am right in my struggle, Steve. I have come to peace with myself, my God and my cause. Blood will flow in the streets, Steve. Good vs. Evil. Free Men vs. Socialist Wannabe Slaves. Pray it is not your blood, my friend.
McVeigh was motivated by the same factors that are motivating the Fox news endorsed Tea Party movement: racism, a desire for guns, and a hatred for taxes and anything they perceive as socialism.
So how has the right responded to Timothy McVeigh? Ann Coulter said:
My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building.
At the time, Rush Limbaugh was very defensive about his role in McVeigh's bombing. He said:
I want to go back to this show on April 24th of this year and--and remember at this time we're--we're about five days after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. And we're into this period of time where talk radio--and, of course, when you say talk radio what everybody thinks of is Rush Limbaugh--talk radio is responsible for this because of the extremist nature of the programs and it could inspire these lunatics to do what they did(sarcasm)...
To this day, Rush Limbaugh believes that Clinton blamed him for the Oklahoma bombing, despite the fact that Clinton never mentioned his name.
Bill Maher accused Fox Host Glenn Beck of using the same rhetoric that "made (McVeigh) blow up that building" on March 23, 2009.
Four months late, Beck would address the McVeigh issue, saying:
If anyone thinks that it would be a good idea to turn violent, think again. It would destroy the Republic. They have awakened a sleeping giant. But just one lunatic like Timothy McVeigh could ruin everything that everyone has worked so hard for. Because these people in Washington won't pass up the use of an emergency. Look how the media ran with the abortion doctor killing. They tried to pin that despicable act on Fox in general and specifically Bill O'Reilly and me. ...I don't want to ever hear from our own Americans, anyone voicing some sort of Muslim-extremist type justification.
Notice that Beck is not condemning violence, just asking his followers not to be violent so they don't make him look bad in the eyes of the media. Still while distancing himself from violence, Beck is clearly attaching himself to the philosophies of McVeigh. In many ways, Beck is like the "radical" Islamic clerics who influence terrorists by preaching hate and fear without ever calling for violence directly.
So if we are going to be on the look out for possible extremist/terrorist types. We should not only check for Muslims who subscribe to radical Islam, but we should check for people who listen to Glenn Beck and Ann Coultier. Lunatics come from all sorts of religions, political parties and races. If we are going to profile for lunatics out of one background, we might as well start with the right wing. White supremacists have been infiltrating the military for some time now, according to the New York Times, and with a Black President, they pose more of a threat than ever.