Hasan, who is now awake, may not agree with the senator. It seems to me he was an aspiring jihadist, just taking baby steps as a soldier for Allah. He probably also snapped. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Confirmed al Qaeda terrorists, who are known to lie in wait for opportunities to strike, for years within sleeper cells, would probably disapprove of his style of impatient jihadist impulses, even if the American born imam who now lives in Yemen, al Awlaki, has given approbation for his dastardly deed.

Hasan may have been accepted to medical school in the USA but jihadi schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan would probably reject him.

What is going unnoticed is the less dramatic arrest of a Phd in Pharmacy in Boston--from an affluent suburb no less, Tarek Mehanna is the guy's name--he wanted to shoot innocents in malls and execute two prominent American politicians. He had Egyptian and American citizenships and his reasons for embracing radical Islam? Isolation and marginalization. Interestingly, he was accepted to pharmacy school in the US, but he was rejected by the jihadi school of Lashkar e Taiba in Pakistan.

This is the new brand of American jihadist--in dire need of psych meds to mitigate delusions of religious grandeur, unskilled and unschooled in the cunning ways of veteran jihadists, nevertheless ambitious, not in his chosen profession of study, but in the more hazardous venture of killing infidels for Allah.

These garden variety disaffected Western born jihadists are more common and more virulent in Britain; their admission to jihadi schools in Pakistan guaranteed by virtue of their greater commitment to terror. The American born jihadists are still at a stage when they cannot pass muster with the harder demands of al Qaeda. Their British cousins seem to be more experienced and adept at the game of impressing the top brass in this gang of Muslim thugs.

But the fact that these inept and nutty American jihadists exist at all is intensely disturbing. What is worse, there are on-line jihadi schools where recruitment is happening under the radar and to the incompetent jihadists the on-line schools are havens.

Moderate American Muslim parents and imams must din into the heads of the young men in their sphere of influence, that the jihadi lifestyle is not one to please Allah or bring salvation. This is a war for the hearts and the minds of young American Muslims. If we do not respond to the impending threat, al Qaeda will have them--may be not in camps in Pakistan but most certainly in murder sprees across America.
Ravensfan Anon

"At the end of the day, I think it's going to be about him." (Sen Graham)

We're not supposed to speculate? Is "at the end of the day" not speculation? So the jury is out. At the "end of the day" we could also find that the mass murder was given encouragement or suggestions or assistance from other jihadists. What are the Gen and the Sen going to do when the obvious question of Purple Hearts for the dead and wounded is breached? They might find themselves in an awkward position.

k.c.

k.c. - What Sen. Graham and Gen Casey are trying to do prevent any backlash directed at Muslim Soldiers or Muslims in general. There's nothing wrong with speculating as long as you remember that’s all it and are prepared to re-evaluate your speculation when facts do emerge.

If all of our soldiers were also soldiers for Christ then we wouldnt have to worry about all this tragedy happening would we?

Eric Rudolph saw himself as a Christian soldier. Yet nobody blamed the Bible for him being out of his mind.

And no one should. The mistakes that any Christian makes are no excuse for us not to try to be Christian soldiers.

Any religion fosters the mentality that can lead to similar actions by their members. Today, it was revealed that the lunatic fringe of the far Right religious wackos, started marketing products calling for the assassination of President Obama. They are marketing tee-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons and even teddy bears emblazoned with the message to "Pray for President Obama" with this bible reference underneath "Psalms 109.8". The bible passage states, "Let his days be few;and let another take his place", with the next verse stating, "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.". Hate, evidently, can spring from any superstitious form of delusionalism, and this example is what it is, a call to kill the president by people who are sick.

Robert - Hate doesn't require religion to spring up. Religion is used to try and justify it. Since Christians are called to love all including enemies whoever is promoting that disgusting campaign against President Obama is not following the message of Christ.

Mt 5:43-45 says

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.