Let's Pretend

Ace reporter Chris Matthews says we may never know if religion was a factor at Fort Hood, never mind that

...according to eyewitnesses, colleagues, and friends...[Major Nidal Malik Hasan] considered the war on terror a “war on Islam” and himself a Muslim first and an American second; he thought Muslims had the right to stand up to the “aggressor” in the Middle East and is suspected of posting things online about the selfless heroism of jihadist suicide bombers; he was placed on probation for proselytizing about Islam to patients and colleagues and was sufficiently devout that he refused to have his picture taken with women; he once used a lecture at a medical conference as an opportunity to discuss how the Koran orders decapitation for infidels; and, oh yes, he yelled “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire.

Let's pretend Major Hasan was a pious Catholic who attended mass daily, prayed the Rosary frequently and made a habit of picketing abortion clinics; or better yet, he was a protestant fundamentalist. Do you suppose Matthews (a Catholic himself) and his colleagues would still effect that same scrupulous objectivity over the part religion might have played in the slaughter?

UPDATE: You have wonder what effect this atrocity will have on Army moral, both here and abroad, as word gets out that despite Hasan's increasingly anti-American rhetoric, to the point of loudly defending those killing American troops, the brass simply looked the other way. Why should those in the lower ranks willingly face the enemy when officers to whom their care has been entrusted appear to place higher value on political correctness than the safety of their charges?