I interrupt this week’s planned program of Jewish Book Fair book reviews to do what I’ve never before done with this column: get political.

I’m way past sick and tired of the folks who want to sugarcoat Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s murderous rampage with their PC veneer of his stress, deployment anxiety, and disenchantment with the U.S. military for whom he worked.

The guy’s last words before he massacred thirteen American citizens weren’t, “Forgive me, I’m lonely.” Or even a vindictive retaliatory, “I’m gonna make you all pay.” His last words before destroying thirteen American lives, thirteen worlds that will never come into being were, “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great.” This is the rallying murder cry of Muslim extremist terrorists.

Because Hasan supposedly “acted alone” doesn’t make it one damn bit less than what it was — an act of terror perpetrated upon American citizens. This was September 11, 2001 in microcosm. That it was thirteen deaths not three thousand plus or one man with a gun instead of nineteen with four airplanes is irrelevant. America, can’t you say “terrorist”? Come on. Sure you can. Wake up and give it a try.

I’ll be back soon with a review of Johanna Reiss’ most recent memoir. Now in her 70’s, Reiss she was a “hidden child,” her life saved by Dutch farmer and his wife during the Shoah (Holocaust). Another mass annihilation of human beings launched by a lonely misfit whom no one wanted to take seriously until it was too late.