The Land of Make Believe
Just yesterday I posted an essay on Mr. Obama’s “legacy” (“What Legacy?”, posted 9/24/16). That essay turned out, sadly, to be already out of date on the very day I posted it. In that article I enumerated TWELVE separate terror attacks on U.S. soil that have taken place on Mr. Obama’s “watch.” Sadly, that figure is now passè, and there are now THIRTEEN.
The thirteenth attack, a shooting rampage at the Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington, was courtesy of immigrant Arcan Cetin, a Turkish Muslim. Mr. Cetin was born in Adana, Turkey, and immigrated to the USA with his parents as a child. On Friday, four innocent women and one innocent man were executed by Arcan Cetin as they went about shopping.
Once again, the police press conference was misleading at the get go. Upon reviewing the mall security videos, the authorities were quick to describe the perpetrator as an “hispanic appearing” male. Well, they got the “male” part right. When I viewed the video stills myself on line, my first thought was, “if that guy is Hispanic, I’ll eat my hat!” No “hat eating”, as it turned out, was necessary.
And, then I had another thought. Dear reader, can you remember the last hispanic terror attack on the U.S.A.?….I couldn’t either, so I decided to research this further. I first encountered an FBI report that claimed MORE U.S.terror attacks were committed by Latinos than Muslims. Since that statement didn’t match my memory of terrorist events, I decided to look into it further. Well, it turns out, that on closer inspection, that the FBI report included incidents involving PROPERTY DAMAGE only, and they stopped their study in 2005. (Doesn’t it appear that the FBI looses credibility EVERY time they open their mouths?).
In an article titled “No, America’s terror threat is not coming from Latino’s”, by Tony Ortega (Raw Story, Jan 16, 2015), I learned that in the THIRTY FOUR YEARS between 1980 and 2014, there were 7 deaths caused by Latino Nationalist terrorists (as opposed to 3,003 by jihadis). The vast majority of incidents cited by the FBI involved nothing more than property damage. Now, although we might highly value, say, that vintage Ford Mustang in our garage, I don’t think any of us would feel “terrorized” by someone who threatened to wreck it. It might get us “ticked off”, or even enraged, but not, I think “terrorized”. Most of us would require the threat of loss of life or at least loss of health to rightly call it terrorism. So property loss is NOT the right criteria for terrorism in the FBI report. None-the-less, that’s one of the criteria they used and the conclusions of the report are (intentionally, I suspect) misleading at best.
So, considering that the Cascade Mall perpetrator didn’t LOOK Hispanic, and considering that there has been a paucity of terrorism on the part of American Hispanics over a 34 year period, we must ask why law enforcement spokespersons treated us to the “Hispanic looking man” ruse? Why mislead our country? Why jump quickly to the wrong conclusions?
I am going to assume that the Burlington, Washington, police department is not TRYING to appear incompetent on purpose. Therefore, there MUST be some other factor at work. That other factor, is, I think, what I’ll call the “make believe” factor. The idea here is, that the evolving reality of continual jihadi terror on American soil, is so frightening and so repugnant, that Americans can’t bear to keep it in our consciousness for any extended period of time. For example, consider the case of a small child who, for what ever reason, feels lonely. That mental state may be so discomforting to him or her, that they enter into a world of “make believe.” They invent an imaginary “friend” and then immediately feel better.
I believe our nation is doing the SAME thing regarding jihadi violence. The threat is so striking, so frightening and so repugnant, that we WANT to find OTHER bogeymen. In spite of the fact that over ninety percent of American terrorism is jihadi in nature, we want to think, instead, that it’s a manifestation of psycho pathology. Or, perhaps, “right wing” ideology. Or, perhaps, Latino nationalists. Or, perhaps, homophobia. Or, perhaps, ANYTHING, other than what it really is.
I will never forget Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s comments after the Orlando massacre, in which she said, “We may NEVER KNOW what the shooter’s motives were!” Never know, Ms. Lynch? NEVER KNOW? When Omar Mateen shouted “Alahu Akbar” as he took each innocent life! NEVER KNOW? Welcome, Ms. Lynch, to the land of “make believe.”
I also remember the Boston Marathon bombing was described, initially, by some in the media, as, likely, a “right wing” attack because it took place on April 15, tax day! Correspondents, follow Ms. Lynch, and please make your way to the land of “make believe.”
And, I STILL can’t get over the fact that the Fort Hood massacre has been classified, OFFICIALLY by our government, as “work place violence” rather than the jihadi attack that it really was. The land of “Make believe”, again, awaits.
Now, regarding the Cascade Mall shootings, further obfuscation is already under way. The latest material I have read, is that they didn’t find jihadi material on Cetin’s computer and that he was depressed because his girlfriend left him and moved to another country (smart girl!). Oh, okay! That makes it all right, then! No problem!….Do they expect us to ignore the fact that the Cascade Mall massacre was perpetrated by a MUSLIM IMMIGRANT (depressed or not), and was carried out in a manner advocated by ISIS, and that has, in fact, been demonstrated by ISIS on numerous occasions? Do the expect us to IGNORE that? Do they expect us to enter into that land of “make believe” with them? Maybe they do! Maybe that’s what they expect!….To which I would say: No way, Josè!