Timothy McVeigh was born and raised in western New York. He was of Irish descent. He joined the U.S. Army and served honorably. After he was turned down for Special Forces Training, he left the service and meandered around the country picking up a few bucks here and there at gun shows and down in Waco, TX during the infamous, Branch Davidian standoff. (He sold anti government bumper stickers out of his car.) In April, 1995 McVeigh, with help from his pal, Terry Nichols, blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City with a huge home-made bomb he had stashed in a rental truck. The explosion killed 168 people, including 19 young children who were attending a day care center in the building.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar was born and raised in east Texas. Although he is not of Irish descent, like McVeigh he is an Army veteran who served honorably. After he spent nearly ten years active duty and another couple in the reserves Jabbar's career, which remains a tad fuzzy, is reported to have been in real estate. Unlike McVeigh, Jabbar was married. In fact he was married twice, both of them ending in divorce. He was paying child support to one of the ex-wives, while the other had hit him with a restraining order.
At some point in his life he apparently started to buy into the hate filled rhetoric of the organization known as ISIS. There is no proof, at least at this point, he ever had any contact with ISIS leadership--if there actually is such a thing--or if any of them even knew he existed. As we all know, Jabbar acted on his new found philosophy of disenfranchised reality in New Orleans. Early New Years morning he plowed his rented truck through the crowds on Bourbon Street, killing at least 14, although that number may rise. New Orleans police killed him after he came to a stop and opened fire on them.
On the other hand, the U.S. Government killed Tim McVeigh after a trial, a short stint in a federal prison, and a last meal which included chocolate chip mint, ice cream.
There are a few other differences in these two cases of heinous terrorism. The main one being after McVeigh was identified prominent politicians didn't start howling open borders were allowing Irish white guys to enter the country to perpetrate savage crimes.
The gruesome fact McVeigh had actually killed a lot more people didn't matter. As soon as Shamsud-Din Jabbar had been ID'd and the news about his ISIS flag had been reported, President Elect Donald Trump posted on social media, "When I said the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals that we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department."
Never one not to take a hint from Donald Trump, or to create a conspiracy, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted in part, "Terrorist attack in NOLA similar to the one in the German Christmas market. What did we expect would happen with wide open borders and millions of gotaways?"
Thursday morning Trump doubled down. He wrote, "With the Biden Open Border Policy, I said many times during rallies and elsewhere that Radical Islamic Terrorism and other forms of violent crime will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe."
Again, Shamsud-Din Jabbar was born in Beaumont, TX and up until the moment of the attack he lived and worked in Houston. Before he drove the truck down Bourbon Street, he had posted on social media he had planned to kill his family, but changed his mind. All of which begs the question, which open border does Trump and Greene want to shut down? That one between Texas and Louisiana? It is a known crossing point for criminals--the most notorious one being Lee Harvey Oswald who used it to get to Dallas from New Orleans before he assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
Jabbar might have had an ISIS flag on his rented truck, but in truth he was one of us: a home grown, old fashioned, All-American homicidal maniac. ISIS and their twisted interpretation of Islam was simply an excuse to explain his rage and madness. Things weren't working out the way he wanted, or had hoped, so like McVeigh and even Oswald he chose not to blame himself, but rather the country he once defended.
To paraphrase Marjorie Taylor Greene, what did we expect would happen when these fascist wannabes found out Jabbar's name? Well, we can expect, as one wag on CNN put it, "No matter what happens politicians will always politic."
Amen to that, brother.
1-3-25
No comments:
Post a Comment