If you listen to the news coverage, there’s a lot of concern over whether or not Hasan had “ties” to foreign Jihadist groups, primarily al-Qaeda. This is obviously a serious concern and should have been investigated before Hasan murdered those people — and, of course, after as well.

But, I sometimes get the sense that some will be relieved if he had no ties to Jihadi groups and was merely a lone gunman. For some it’s as if the “going postal” from stress explanation is more reassuring. Happens all the time, after all.

But isn’t that the scarier scenario? I would much rather live in a world where terrorists needed to make traceable phone calls or send interceptable e-mail to places like Yemen before they went active. A scenario of freelance terrorists who don’t need technical guidance but mere ideological inspiration is much scarier both because of the vulnerablity that would imply as well as the awful climate that would create.

Update: Oh, I left out the most relevant and timely illustration of my point: The guy who was executed yesterday.