03 Jun 2009 Outrage of the Day: Obama’s Silence on the Murder of William Long

Thanks to Michelle Malkin for the link to the Newsbusters version of my post on the lopsided news media coverage of the George Tiller and William Long murders.

Kudos to Michelle for calling President Obama to account for the shameful way Obama has ignored William Long’s murder.

Obama was Private Long’s commander-in-chief. Long was murdered specifically because of this service. On Sunday, President Obama lamented the murder of George Tiller, whose killer allegedly had political and religious motivations. On Monday, Private Long was murdered by someone else who likewise allegedly had political and religious motives. Long, unlike Tiller, had a direct tie to President Obama — Long had sworn an oath to follow Obama’s orders, even at the risk of his own life. Then, in the performance of these duties, apparently directly because he had sworn that specific oath, Long is murdered. And Obama, so quick to condemn ideological murder just a day before, says nothing.

Even after people complain, giving the clueless White House a clue that words were sought, Obama still says nothing.

You should read the whole thing, but here’s part of Michelle Malkin’s column on this:

President Obama issued a statement condemning “heinous acts of violence” within hours of Tiller’s death. The Justice Department issued its own statement and sent federal marshals to protect abortion clinics. News anchors and headline writers abandoned all qualms about labeling the gunman a terrorist. An almost gleeful excess of mainstream commentary poured forth on the climates of hate and fear created by conservative talk radio, blogs, and Fox News for reporting Tiller’s activities.

By contrast, President Obama was silent about the military recruiter attacks that left 24-year-old Private William Long dead and 18-year-old Private Quinton Ezeagwula gravely wounded. On Tuesday afternoon — more than 24 hours after the attack on the military recruiting center in Little Rock — President Obama held a press conference to announce his pick for Army Secretary. It would have been exactly the right moment to express condolences for the families of the targeted Army recruiters and to condemn heinous acts of violence against our troops.

But President Obama said nothing. The Justice Department was mum. And so were the legions of finger-pointing pundits happily convicting the pro-life movement and every right-leaning writer on the planet of contributing to the murder of George Tiller. Obama’s omission, it should be noted, comes just a few weeks after he failed to mention the Bronx jihadi plot to bomb synagogues and a National Guard airbase during his speech on homeland security.

Why the silence? Politically and religiously-motivated violence, it seems, is only worth lamenting when it demonizes opponents…

Michelle scolds the media, too: “Is it too much to ask the media cartographers in charge of mapping the ‘climate of hate’ to do their jobs with both eyes open?”

Yes, apparently it is.

William Long was willing to give his life to his country. Because of this, he was (apparently) targeted by a domestic terrorist and killed. His sacrifice deserves at least token recognition by his commander-in-chief.

Michelle’s June 3 blog post on this contains the full text of her column. After you read it, click the “send to a friend” tag at the end, and send the column to at least five friends.

Obama does things when he thinks they’ll help make him popular. If we keep this story alive, Private Long eventually may get the presidential recognition he deserves.

Addendum: Vocal Minority has good thoughts on this as well, including a roundup of comments from other sources. (That’s where I learned of Michelle Malkin’s hat tip in the first place, as well.)

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Labels: Conservatives, Crime, Defense, Liberals, Media, White House