Infiltration

by digby

Some readers are telling me that writing about the right wing is a waste of time and only feeds their need for attention and helps perpetuate the freakshow. Perhaps that’s right. But since I’ve seen the mainstream of the Republican party go from being the party of Eisenhower to the party of Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman in my lifetime, I’m a little bit concerned about what happens if they happen to come back into power with these people in influential, powerful positions. It can happen.

So, here’s a little taste of what the freakshow is saying today:

[A] growing number of other Muslim American soldiers as well as civilian contractors have put their religion before their duty. Some like Hasan have killed, or tried to kill, their fellow soldiers. Others have infiltrated the military in order to undermine it and aid and comfort the enemy.

Perhaps that’s not worth noting. World Net Daily is a fringe operation that never let a fact stand in the way of its lunacy. But you’re hearing the same thing on Fox, the cable network that has been tasked with setting the news agenda by the paper of record:

“Do you think it’s time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim Army officers, anybody enlisted? Because if I’m gonna be deployed in a foxhole, if I’m gonna be sitting in an outpost, I gotta know the guy next to me is not gonna wanna kill me,” Kilmeade said. (Check out the video here.) Geraldo Rivera commendably pointed out that there are several million Muslims in America, and that many serve in the military and are highly valued. Another host, Gretchen Carlson, interrupted in order to point the blame at “political correctness.” “Could it be that the military was also exercising political correctness, even though he had a poor performance report and even though he spoke openly about being a radical Muslim and had those supposed postings online?” she asked.

Spencer Ackerman writes that GOP candidates are there already:

The Hill reports that Allen West, a former Army lieutenant colonel promoted by the National Republican Congressional Committee as one of its “young guns,” has come to some conclusions about the meaning of Maj. Hasan’s murders at Ft. Hood:

“This enemy preys on downtrodden soldiers and teaches them extremism will lift them up,” West said in a statement. “Our soldiers are being brainwashed.” The release added that West claims “the horrible tragedy at Fort Hood is proof the enemy is infiltrating our military.”

(Read Spencer’s whole post. It’s quite illuminating about this “young gun.”)

I think this is worth writing about. It may not come to anything. Let’s hope it doesn’t. But this radical right wing movement is violent, xenophobic and authoritarian in nature and that’s always worth keeping an eye on.

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