I chastised the editorial writers at The News & Observer the other day for their willful ignorance regarding the motives of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The boys on the edit page were simply befuddled:
Was this a random act? Was there something in Hasan’s recent experience that may have prompted it? Was there any way to have prevented it? Had there been any indication the suspect suffered from some kind of mental trouble? Were any of his victims known to him?
Well, a few days later, with a ton of facts corroborating the original known facts about a religious motive, the N&O finally sees what was obvious on Nov. 7:
In this case, it was Hasan’s intensifying Islamic radicalism, which appears to be the main motive behind the massacre. This was, it now appears, not a stressed-out soldier – or not just a stressed-out soldier – but rather a committed suicide-attacker who actively sided with Islamic terror.
Better late than never, I guess.
