The New Orleans Attack Was Absolutely Preventable

The attack exemplifies what right-wing politics and the modern-day Republican Party have in store for America.

Courtesy of Europosters

Just hours after a “new beginning” was launched, the end came quickly and violently for over a dozen people taking part in New Year’s celebrations on the famous Bourbon Street. A recently-radicalized American citizen (I will not write his name here) drove a rented truck into a crowd and only stopped after having run over dozens. The 42-year-old terrorist was then gunned down in a firefight with the police who were on the scene instantly.

President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on the tragedy, offering prayers for the victims and condolences to their loved ones. (Let this phrase sink in.) Now, you know damn well that Trump did nothing of the sort, right? He instead politicized the horrid event by blaming illegal immigrants for the attack. In a text full of lies just hours after the tragedy, and while some of the dead bodies still lie there in the heart of what had just hours been a big, fun party, Trump raged about how the U.S. is experiencing one of the worst crimes sprees in its history thanks to immigrants. Fox News even supported his narrative before pulling back a few hours later.

As we all know, Donald Trump is disgusting. As much as I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, as it seems my earlier article of predictions for 2025 was received, this year could be one of the most transformational in our history and world history, and not in good ways — more on that in a separate article that will really knock the socks off of people looking for a kinder, more Love-Board version of reality.

Let’s look at yesterday’s tragedy without getting into all the heart-breaking details. The corporate media has again taken the easy way out in reporting on the motives of the killer.

“He was recently radicalized.” How do they know that this veteran, who served for 13 years in the U.S. Army, was deployed once to a war zone, and was born in Texas, had been radicalized? In the aftermath of the attack, an Islamic flag was found in the truck he drove into the crowd. Whether or not this man had indeed become a cold-blooded terrorist bent on wrecking innocent lives to make a political point or not is something I am not questioning. At first glance, it seems that he had indeed lost his way and found a home somewhere in the many rabbit holes of Internet conspiracies.

I am questioning two things: Why the haste in packing this tragedy quickly and neatly away into the aging cardboard box with the words “Radicalized Muslim attack” on it? and how does an American citizen who served 13 years in the Army living in Texas so lose his way that he chooses that final statement to end not only his life but as many lives as he could with a truck on New Year’s Eve?

The first reports of the killer tell us that he grew up in Beaumont, Texas. He was a quiet, well-liked kid who eventually found his way to the Army. He served with honor and did one tour in Afghanistan. In 2016, a journalist interviewed him about the difficulties of returning to civilian life after the military.

Mr. Jabbar had complained in the past about the challenges of life as a veteran. In a 2015 interview with Georgia State University’s student paper, Mr. Jabbar said that the Department of Veterans Affairs had made it difficult to get paid through the G.I. Bill. He attended G.S.U. from 2015 until 2017, when he received a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, the school said (No Terrorist to Me).

In the interview, he also complained about his inability to speak so that civilians understood him. The military lingo had so effectively replaced his ability to communicate freely that he found it easier to stay quiet. Between the troubles communicating and the lack of support from Veterans Affairs (VA), the man eventually found his way to the Muslim community of Houston. There, he joined a mosque and slowly, and especially after divorcing his wife, became more committed to the struggle of the Muslims. The next the world would hear about him was after he had driven his truck into the crowd of Bourbon Street.

If you run a Google search on “the VA and funding cuts,” you will always see that it is Republicans who cut the VA budget with little or no regard for the health and well-being of the men and women who protect our country.

The Republican’s VA agenda has always been clear: Tarnish the reputation of the department, use that reputation to gut the budget, and then argue that the only way to fix the system they’ve so depleted of resources is to privatize it. Pointing to the VA as a poster child for the failure of government and the virtues of the free market, ideological and corporate health care interests have recently begun rallying veterans to fight Medicare for All.

These same interests have also helped shape laws further undermining the department, including the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, which gutted due process and other union rights for employees, and the VA MISSION Act, which sets the stage for the total privatization of the department (When It Comes to Veterans).

When the New Year’s terrorist was struggling to readjust to civilian life and get the benefits the VA promised him, the chaotic free-for-all of Donald Trump’s first term was unfolding. Led by Trump, Republicans were assaulting every program or department that received federal funding to redirect that money to privately-held companies. The Koch brothers and others were especially vocal in calling the VA a wasteful and poorly-run organization.

In his new book, former Veterans Affairs secretary Dr. David Shulkin details the Trump administration’s sustained attacks on the Department of Veterans Affair, many of which were led by what he dubs “subversive staff” and calculating outside allies, including the “Mar-a-Lago crowd” and the Koch-backed advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America (No Terrorist to Me).

There are some things in life that need to be administered by the government without trying to turn those organizations into profit-making entities. Despite their continued resistance, most Americans are now happy with Obamacare. Republicans would kill it tomorrow. In dark red states that rejected expanded funding for Medicaid, the overall health of the population is much worse than in the blue states where health care is a guarantee for all.

The VA is one of those organizations that the federal government should not be nickling and diming. The vets go to war, and many come home broken. They need years of help, but because of the greed of the God-fearing Christians in the Republican Party, they happily serve up these ailing men and women as sacrificial lambs on the altar of privatization. Republicans and libertarians are not necessarily dumb because many of them are successful. Nonetheless, they have ignorant shitheads when it comes to understanding opportunity cost and the consequences of actions.

Many of them loved the Trump years because their taxes were cut. They look forward to more of the same now. The loss of an American veteran to the radical terrorists online and in his Houston community is a direct consequence of Republican, right-wing greed.

When Trump shot off his message blaming immigrants for the attack, he soothed the conscience of these right-wing haters — the same ones who praise guns but feel just a tiny bit guilty when mass shootings in schools occur — by reminding them that “Once I get in, I will stop all of this chaos and restore order.” The right-wingers let out sighs of relief and then checked their Vanguard accounts to see how their stocks were doing.

2025 promises to make many of them wealthier and many of us just less of everything.