Dylann Roof and "terrorism"

I see where no less an authority on terrorism than Jon Stewart has decreed that Dylann Roof was a terrorist.

I think that’s giving Mr. Roof way more credit than he is due.

Nine dead in Charleston. How often do nine dead in Baghdad or Kabul or some other hell-hole of America’s making make the news?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.

Dylann Roof didn’t come out of nowhere. He came out of a winner-take-all culture that needs to scape-goat the losers.

He found his scape-goats in a church that was so full of kindness that they welcomed him in.

Labelling him a “terrorist” shifts the narrative to America’s “war on terror.” As a Jon Stewart fan of long standing I would like to think that’s not what he had in mind.

Dylann Roof is not a terrorist. He’s an American. He’s an American so alienated from his country that a shocking act of mass murder seemed to him to be a credible act of protest.

Dylann Roof was wrong.

So is Jon Stewart.