Those killed yesterday in Orlando were victims of a war that dare not speak its name.
Special Posting About the Orlando Terrorist Attack
By: George Noga – June 13, 2016
As most readers know, MLLG is based in Orlando; accordingly, yesterday’s act of terrorism hit home. Firstoff, a few corrections to media reportage are needed. The US mass killing with the most fatalities is not Orlando; it was Waco, Texas with 84 killed. Instead of terrorists, the killing was perpetrated by Janet Reno. Second, it is inaccurate to describe the Orlando terrorist as a lone wolf; he had extensive ties to jihadists; he may have done the shooting but he was no lone wolf like say a Ted Kaczynski.
Those slaughtered in Orlando were only the latest in a long train of similar atrocities. There have been over 30 separate fatal incidents. From the bombings in the Beirut embassy and marine barracks in the 1980s killing 241 soldiers, to the Berlin disco bombing, to Pan Am flight 103, to the 1993 attacks on CIA headquarters and the World Trade Center that killed many more – there was one common denominator.
The Khobar Towers bombing in 1998 killed 19; this was followed by the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania killing scores more. Seventeen sailors died in the USS Cole attack and another 2,997 Americans perished in the World Trade Center. These were followed by the Daniel Pearl beheading, Karachi Consulate attack, murder of marines in Kuwait, the Riyadh bombing and yet more beheadings in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Khartoum – again, there was only one common denominator.
At Fort Hood 13 more died; Benghazi saw the slaughter of our ambassador and 3 others; and the Boston Marathon massacre saw 3 killed and 183 injured. Just within the past year there were 4 marines killed in Chattanooga, the 14 deaths in San Bernardino and now, Orlando. Yes – all this terror and slaughter had a single common denominator.
What is the common denominator responsible for this horror that has been with us for 33 years? Is it climate change, corporate tax inversions, workplace violence, wage inequality or fossil fuels? Is it Citizens United, the TPP, gender specific restrooms, gluten, campus rape culture, too big to fail, white racism, lack of free community college, war on women, low minimum wages or state right to work laws? Or could it be the accumulation of microagressions or lack of trigger warnings or safe rooms?
Could the common thread possibly be GMOs, fracking or even religious opposition to birth control and gay marriage by bakers, florists and nuns? Could the common denominator be lack of sustainability, broken window policing, the vast right wing conspiracy, Chick-fil-A or even the legacy of George W. Bush? Or, were all of these horrific incidents merely isolated crimes best handled by the criminal justice system?
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we are in the midst of a war against an enemy that dare not speak its name. The over 100 dead and wounded in Orlando yesterday were not killed by climate change, fracking or GMOs; they were killed by radical Islam.
Note to readers: In the time ahead we will have much more about terrorism.
The next post on June 19th explains why business succeeds while government fails.