With no explanation, label the following with either "hyperpartisan" or "not_hyperpartisan".
The slaughter that happened last Sunday evening in Las Vegas, when an American man shot randomly into a crowd of around 22,000 at a music festival, was the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. It also continued a pattern of terrorist attacks: all terrorists who have carried out lethal attacks in the U.S. since 9/11 have been citizens or permanent residents. In Trump’s first speech to Congress, he claimed “the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came here from outside of our country.” That is a flat-out lie that earned Trump “ four Pinocchios” — the most dishonest rating given by fact checkers at Washington Post. Here’s the truth: 154 people have been murdered by terrorists on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001; according to the New America Foundation, all of these murderers were U.S. citizens or legal residents. This means of course that none of these terrorists came from the countries listed in Trump’s travel ban, even though the United States is supposedly a safer place thanks to the travel ban. In fact, as New America points out: “None of the deadly attackers since 9/11 emigrated or came from a family that emigrated from one of these countries nor were any of the 9/11 attackers from the listed countries. Eight of the lethal attackers were born American citizens.” This is not to deny that there have been deadly attacks since 9/11 that have been inspired by jihadism and foreign terror groups. The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history prior to the Las Vegas killings took place in June 2016, when Omar Mateen, an ISIS-inspired terrorist who was an American-born citizen of Afghan descent, opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, murdering 49 people and injuring another 53. Nor can we ignore the vicious attacks carried out by ISIS militants that have killed or injured hundreds of people in England, France and Canada. Just this week two women were killed in a stabbing attack in Marseille, France, by a man allegedly promoting Islamic extremism. In the U.S. however, more terrorist attacks have been carried out by white American men than jihadists. Here are a few of those attacks, as highlighted by Vox: Reaching back further in time, remember Charleston, South Carolina and Sandy Hook, Connecticut? White American males are the primary terrorist threat in the U.S. While Trump is busy “keeping American citizens safe” by denying innocent Muslims the right to enter the U.S., he is also increasing the number of people the U.S. is guilty of killing worldwide. In the years since 9/11, the U.S. has been responsible for thousands of deaths, including 7,000 of its own soldiers, in the “War on Terror.” Americans troops are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the Taliban going strong, Trump recently announced his decision to send more troops to Afghanistan. The invasion of Iraq by the U.S. helped destabilize the entire region and lead to the creation of ISIS, which has been waging its brutal war in the Middle East since then. And let’s not forget the American complicity in the destruction of Yemen. The U.S. has sold billions of dollars worth of deadly weapons to Saudi Arabia, which has used them to attack Yemeni civilians, resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people. Far from facing this hypocrisy, Trump is now talking about revising export regulations to make it even easier for American arms manufacturers to sell to international buyers. Meanwhile Trump has put in place a travel ban on visitors from mainly Muslim-majority countries, who are fleeing from this deadly chaos. If you agree the Muslim ban is cruel and misguided, please sign this Care2 petition, telling Trump to stand up for American values and abolish the immigration ban. Photo Credit: Robert
hyperpartisan.