Where might Hasan go with his fame?

Major Nidal Malik Hasan has benefited from the care of infidel surgeons. Needless to say, he'll need to retain an attorney as soon as he is released from the hospital - not one trained in Sharia law, but an attorney of the ordinary "trial" variety, preferably a "progressive" who rubs elbows and pectoral fins with like-minded cohorts and judges.

More important than a lawyer, however, will be a good publicist. For Major Hasan, there will be the inevitable round of talk shows, at which he can explain his side of the massacre, pouring bathos over the microphones to the delight of advertisers. Segueing from a publicist to an equally unprincipled publisher should prove relatively easy, as American capitalism never lacks for capitalists, especially in this era of no-fault bailouts.

The book tour over, Mr. Hasan can look into getting a professorship at an American university. Heck, Bill Ayers did it, and he wasn't a board-certified psychiatrist.

With profits from his book going to a few choice Al Qaida charities (his legal team, of course, worked pro bono), Professor Hasan can finally pursue some serious, sedate scholarship, an endeavor more suited to his melancholia.

In a decade or so, who knows? He may take into his confidence, and befriend some unknown politician who, as Allah would have it, miraculously becomes the first Muslim American president.

Alexander Lee

Carol Stream