The other day, we took a look at one of the great heros of human history, : Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov <\/a>who ignored orders and did not authorize a retaliatory nuclear strike on the United States when his technology falsely reported incoming nuclear warheads from the US.\u00a0 I remarked:<\/p>\n I cannot help but wonder how many of our kill crazy trigger happy pre-emptive warriors in comboxes or on Talk Radio these days would demonstrate the steely restraint that man did in refusing to panic and push the button.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some people thought this was mean, but then perhaps not everybody remembers the Drudge Report\u2019s headline just before we launched out pre-emptive war in Iraq: \u201cPUSH THE DAMN BUTTON\u201d, nor all the neocons (led by the infallibly wrong Bill Kristol) declaring World War IV<\/a>, nor the hysteria of the Rubber Hose Right cheering for salvation through torture and (in the person of Rick Santorum) the deliberate and premeditated murder of civilians in a country not at war with us as \u201cwonderful<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n Nor do people remember some of the more colorful denizens of our comboxes, who moonlight writing as respected contributors to such various right wing webrags, calling for the nuclear annihilation of five major cities in the Mideast or fantasizing about rounding up the civilian population of New Jersey Muslims, locking them in a mosque and opening fire with tanks<\/a>.<\/p>\n But most troubling is that it isn\u2019t just cybermobs doing what cybermobs do.\u00a0 It is also well-educated, allegedly Christian, right wing legal eagles who choose to go to the mat for stuff like this:<\/p>\n Soldier Who Taught \u2018Total War\u2019 Against Islam Threatens to Sue Top Military Officer<\/a><\/p>\n The Army officer who once taught that the U.S. ought to consider \u201cHiroshima tactics\u201d for a \u201ctotal war\u201d on Islam has put America\u2019s top general on notice for a possible lawsuit. Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley is accusing the government of concealing \u201cthe truth about Islam\u201d at a time when proponents of his view of an inevitable clash between Islam and the West have succeeded at fanning precisely those flames.<\/p>\n On Thursday, attorneys for Dooley told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey that Dooley is considering \u201ca potential civil action,\u201d said Marine Col. David Lapan, a spokesman for Dempsey. The written notice does not indicate that they\u2019ve actually filed a lawsuit against Dempsey.<\/p>\n But Dooley\u2019s lawyers, who have defended one of the most prominent anti-Islam voices in the United States, aren\u2019t just flirting with legal action against the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. They\u2019re launching a PR strike as well. A press release announcing that Dooley has retained them accuses Dempsey of compromising \u201cthe final bastion of America\u2019s defense against Islamic jihad and sharia, the Pentagon<\/a>\u201d to \u201cthe enemy.\u201d And it\u2019s language that comes as Americans worry about Islamic radicals targeting U.S. embassies in the Middle East.<\/p>\n As Danger Room first reported in April, Dempsey shut down an elective course<\/a> Dooley taught at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, which is under the auspices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The course instructed senior officers at the lieutenant colonel, commander, colonel and Navy captain level that \u201cthere is no such thing as \u2018moderate Islam<\/a>,\u2019\u201d and that wartime protections against civilians of Islamic countries were \u201cno longer relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lt. Col. Matthew A. Dooley\u2019s Joint Staff Forces College presentation on \u201cA Counter-Jihad Op Design Model\u201d calls for violent measures in a war against Islam. (emphasis added)<\/em><\/p>\n Materials distributed by Dooley\u2019s guest lecturers suggested inaccurately that President Obama is a Muslim. Similar material taught to the FBI in 2011 compared Islam to the Death Star in Star Wars<\/em><\/a>. Dooley himself taught, \u201cYour oath as a professional soldier forces you to pick a side here.\u201d<\/p>\n Dooley considered the reduction of Islam to a \u201ccult status\u201d an acceptable outcome of what he considered a civilizational war. Accordingly, his instructional material is reminiscent of The Innocence of Muslims<\/em><\/a>, the anti-Islam video that was used as a pretext in the Middle East over the past week for anti-American protests. Dooley was removed from the college and received an administrative reprimand for teaching material that Dempsey called \u201ctotally objectionable, against our values and it wasn\u2019t academically sound<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The course Dooley taught and its parallels in the FBI has become something of a cause celebre in certain right-wing American precincts. Congresswoman and former presidential candidate Michele Bachmann lamented to Glenn Beck<\/a> in July, \u201cThey are purging everything from our military, from our FBI. So we\u2019re not even teaching what the Muslim Brotherhood stands for. We\u2019re not teaching what radical Islam even is.\u201d Bachmann attracted derision this summer when she accused a top aide to Hillary Clinton of nebulous \u201cties\u201d to the Muslim Brotherhood<\/a> based on the aide\u2019s heritage.<\/p>\n Dooley\u2019s attorneys, at the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, have been sympathetic to such arguments. They\u2019ve defended the Florida Pastor Terry Jones<\/a>, whose burning of the Koran prompted violent protests in Afghanistan last year<\/a>. They didn\u2019t return Danger Room\u2019s calls, but they\u2019re portraying Dooley as another free-speech martyr.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I get that the military is not exempt from kooks going General Jack D. Ripper on us.\u00a0 So it doesn\u2019t bother me too much that some guy like Dooley should turn up in the ranks.\u00a0 It happens.\u00a0 And in his case, the system worked as sane heads intervened to remove this dangerous kook from forming hearts and minds.<\/p>\n No.\u00a0 What bothers me is that, once again, the Thing that Used to be Conservatism, at the level of people who really ought to know better and not mere combox crazies,\u00a0manages to combine enthusiasm for crimes against humanity with a supposed dedication to American values and\u2013sickenly\u2013a claim to represent \u201cfaithful orthodox\u201d Catholics faith.\u00a0 The Thomas More Center should be ashamed to be shilling for this filth and every person who is championing this filth should repent and go to confession and beg God\u2019s mercy for creating a genuine public scandal<\/a>.\u00a0There is no justification\u2013none whatsoever\u2013for advocating genocidal war against civilian populations.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Really:<\/p>\n