Why a Muslim American killed five American servicemen

Last October, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Couture-Rouleau, Canadian converts to Islam, killed two Canadian soldiers. One was standing on ceremonial guard at the War Memorial in Ottawa. The other was walking to his car, parked near a strip mall near Montréal. Both were unarmed.

It took some time, and a lot of hemming and hawing, before Canada's self-styled Conservative -- but still politically correct -- government admitted that the killers were Muslim. More time passed before they finally disclosed that the "lone wolf shooters" may have been "influenced by ISIS". Surprise, surprise!

Last week, in Chattanooga, Muhammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, killed four US Marines, a Navy sailor, and two other people, before being himself shot by police. Mr. Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait, but grew up in the USA and was by all accounts an unremarkable young man. He was, however, a Muslim, and distressed by the presence of American troops in his native land, not to mention the American "intervention" in the Muslim civil war now raging in the Middle East.

In, "Chattanooga shooter changed after Mideast visit, friend says", CNN tells us that a recent visit to the Middle East turned the late Abdulazeez into what the US government calls a "domestic terrorist". Surprise, surprise!

His friend, Abdulrazzak Brizada, told CNN that Mr. Abdulazeez had changed after spending time in the Middle East and "distanced himself" for the first few months after returning. "Something happened over there," Mr. Brizada said, adding that "he never became close to me like he was before he went overseas. ... I'm sure he had something that happened to him overseas."

The motive that links these three killers of US and Canadian servicemen is revenge. Informed and inspired by ISIS, they sought to visit the sins of the Obama administration (and Obama's lackeys in Canada, the UK, etc) on any Americans (or Canadians, Brits, etc) they could find -- punishment for America's failed foreign policy of meddling in affairs which are really none of its business.

As President O's pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, said in a sermon in March of 2014, the chickens are coming home to roost. [This link takes you to a post here on WWW which contains an embedded video of Pastor Wright's sermon. If you're using Firefox, you'll need to activate Adobe Flash Player to see it. Ed.]

We turn now to Ron Paul's compendium of positions, ideas and ideals, Liberty Defined (Grand Central Publishing, 2011). In the chapter headed "Empire", Mr. Paul writes:

"It is not infrequently that I hear members of Congress express their unqualified opinion that it is only the hate-filled Muslim religion that is the source of our problems, and we must pursue the war on terrorism at all costs, even if it does mean preventive war.

"Some well-known neocons say they have never heard any other explanation than the religious hatred that they claim Islam generates. They stick to their argument that anyone who would suggest that our own policies contribute to suicide terrorism is committing virtual treason. Sadly, many Americans have been conditioned to believe this.

"Demagoguing, lying, or denying that no unintentional consequences or blowback result from our invasion, occupation, and bombing of other nations, especially Arab and Muslim countries, presents the greatest danger to our society, freedom, and prosperity."

Further reading: "Perry v. Paul: who's right about American involvement in foreign wars?"

Canucks admit "lone wolf" shooters "were influenced by ISIS"

Fancy that! Walt no sooner posted "Why the Australian terrorist wannabe did it" than Agent 3 sent us a link to a story from the online edition of the Toronto Star, headlined "Parliament shooter may have been in contact with Islamic State, Peter MacKay says".

Mr. MacHackey is Canada's Minister of Justice. (Before that he was Minister of Defence, until he got rather too fond of being photographed sitting in jet fighter cockpits and making vroom-vroom noises.) The Star's reporter says that Minister MacKay told him, at the Halifax International Security Forum (sic) in November, "They were influenced by ISIS there is no question."

He (MacKay) was referring to Michael Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Couture-Rouleau, Canadian converts to Islam. Zehaf-Bibeau was the one who killed a Canadian soldier standing on ceremonial guard at the War Memorial in Ottawa. Couture-Rouleau had, just two days earlier, driven a car into two soldiers near Montreal, killing one of them.

At the time (as Walt told you) the Harper government's politically correct line was that the cowardly killings were caused by a "mix of personal disaffection and jihadist zealotry" -- the same syndrome now ascribed to Man Haron Monis, the perpetrator of Sunday's hostage-taking in Sydney, Australia.

"But," writes Josh Rogin-Bloomberg, "sometimes, early reports are later proved wrong. Several weeks after the Ottawa attack, Canada’s top law-enforcement official now says the gunman was not only inspired by Islamic State, he may have been in direct contact with the group.

"[MacKay] said that Canadian intelligence and law enforcement agencies were still trying to pin down exactly what sort of back-and-forth might have occurred between the homegrown terrorists and Islamic State. 'I don’t know that for certain, we have that suspicion, let’s put it that way,' he said, referring to “statements both of these individuals have made to others.

"In the case of the Parliament Hill shooter, there is also evidence contained in a video that Zehaf-Bibeau made before carrying out his suicide mission. The Canadian authorities have not released the video to the public. MacKay said the attacker’s statements in it are 'consistent with our belief that his motivations were very much as a result of being radicalized by the Islamic State.'"

Will the linkage between these attacks and the involvement of Canada and Australia in the "degradation" of ISIS result in any change in their government's foreign policy? Errr, no!