Nidal Hasan and the War on Terror

As Robert Wright points out in the NY Times, it is somewhat puzzling that neocon commentators like Charles Krauthammer are so determined to call Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan a terrorist. I suppose that they want to call Hasan a terrorist because this supports their view that we are surrounded by dangerous Muslim enemies. But I agree with Wright that if Hasan is the face of terrorism, we are fighting terrorism in the wrong way. Unbalanced Muslims who live in the west, like Hasan and the perpetrators of the 7/7 bombings in England, are not going to be deterred or defeated by waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the contrary, the more wars we fight in Muslim countries and the more Muslims we kill, the more such people will be motivated to lash out with violence.

Muslim extremists don't need "safe havens" to attack the west, because thousands of them already live here. All they need is a gun or a homemade bomb. Defeating the Taliban will have no effect on them, except perhaps to make them more determined to strike. The crushing defeat the North inflicted on the South didn't deter John Wilkes Booth. The way to prevent acts like Major Hasan's is to stop killing Muslims abroad and treat them well at home.