Sporadic Blogging

I have been quite irregular blogging during the past fortnight or so. There are couple of reasons including starting of a new (part-time/ contract) job which keeps me quite busy and in my car. My new job takes me all the way to nearly downtown Dallas from the far North Dallas where I live.

I listen to lot of NPR and a new conservative talk radio station 570 KLIF which I recently stumbled upon. Both places are abuzz with the latest news while the former is slightly liberal the latter is extremely conservative. Several show hosts and speakers on both stations are of the view that the recent massacre of 13 soldiers by a Muslim major of the US Army is an act of Jihadi terrorism but not necessarily related to or funded or managed by the Al Qaeda. The government and popular media including newspapers seem to be vehemently disputing this fact. Everyone seems to say that he was a mentally disturbed man who snapped at the prospect of having to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq. I mention both Afghanistan and Iraq because I am not quite clear by the news reports as to where he was scheduled to go.

My only question is if he were mentally disturbed and didn't want to go he should have either quit the army or committed suicide. Only a cold blooded terrorist-like individual would do what he did, kill others who were headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. I sometimes wonder if the American establishment is becoming weak and complaisant. They are ignoring threats of radical terrorist ideology and dismissing these as stray incidents while they can all be run up to a bigger terrorist problem.

Two decades ago the same thing happened in India and they were ignored by the media, politicians and the government. Though the few right wing politicians did scream foul and asked for stricter law enforcement against terrorists and those who collude with them. It never happened and since then India has lost more lives to terrorism than any other country in the past decade. I sure hope that someone in the US establishment wakes up and recognizes the real threat and takes action. That someone should be able to sway the government, the people and the media. Is there someone like that?

We will wait and watch... meanwhile I hope this cartoon can bring a smile on your faces.