Naval Aviators and their spouses all have strong ties to a certain base in a Florida panhandle town called Pensacola. Yesterday, bystanders heard jet noise and gunshots.

The shooting suspect was a member of the Royal Saudi Air Force and an aviation student aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola. His name was Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani. The New York Times however, is imploring individuals to not call the shooting an act of terrorism just yet. After all, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, pressing for his kingdom to rise as a global player in international finance and politics:

Since his father became king in 2015, Prince Mohammed has struggled to rebrand Saudi Arabia as open to the world and a key partner of the West in fighting extremism.

Inside the kingdom, he took the power of arrest away from the once-feared religious police and loosened restrictions on women, including giving them the right to drive.”-The New York Times

How gracious of the Crown Prince giving women the right to drive! We shouldn’t DARE to venture that a foreigner who hates us and despises our ideals and what we stand for may open fire in a classroom on one of our military bases. That notion would be completely preposterous! This is a foreign military officer who came into our country, to use our resources, to learn to fly. Our military hosts these type of exchanges all of the time without much incident. The difference between Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani and other participants in these programs? Not all of these men and women are spouting off on Twitter like Alshamrani. Here are some of gems he’s posted on his Twitter account that has since been deleted:

O American people – I’m not against you for being American, I don’t hate you because your freedoms, I hate you because every day you supporting, funding and committing crimes not only against Muslims but against humanity.”-Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani on American’s support for Israel

And this:

What I see from America is the supporting of Israel which is invasion of Muslim countrie (sic), I see invasion of many countries by it’s troops, I see Guantanamo Bay. I see cruise missiles, cluster bombs and UAV.”-Mohammed Saeed Alsharani

You know what, Mohammed? I, too, saw Guantanamo Bay after 9/11. My husband also saw GITMO, too. He saw fellow Marines get urinated on, spat on and cussed at on a regular basis by extremists who believe in the “religion of peace”-by extremists who planned to kill thousands of of our mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters and friends and succeeded. As the wife of someone who was winged in Pensacola, who now flies the loved ones of others for a living, I’d say GITMO seemed like a vacation club for some of these people who have masterminded one of the most horrific days in history.

Later last night, six other Saudi nationals were arrested near the base shortly after the attack, as investigators began to probe a terror link.

Three of the six were seen filming the entire incident as it unfolded. Who were they going to send this off to? Where would they have posted this? They weren’t there to jump in and help, that’s for damn sure.

But whatever you do, don’t call this terrorism, says The New York Times. Don’t jump to conclusions. If you do, you may run the risk of exposing your uneducated, xenophobic, racist selves.

Some person did something, I guess. You know, maybe some disgruntled foreign aviation student managed to get his hands on a firearm and just start shooting for the hell of it. Maybe he lost it. While the Saudis apologize profusely about the deaths of the innocent to save face, we still continue to let people who despise us into our country to learn how to fly our aircraft. Does this sound vaguely familiar? In fact, 15 of the 19 terrorists who used planes filled with innocent people and loaded with jet fuel on 9/11 of 2001 were Saudi pilots who trained at least partially in the United States.

Hani Hanjour, a 9/11 hijacker that piloted a jet into the Pentagon, was trained to fly at a flight school in Arizona and licensed by The FAA, typed in the 737. He went to the University of Arizona and studied English as a Second Language in the 90s. Khalid al-Mihdhar, Abdulaziz al-Omari, Waleed al-Shehri…just to name a few names-all Saudi. Fifteen out of nineteen involved. I’m not repeating this for my health.

Meanwhile, the NAS Pensacola community rallies and stands strong and military towns do. Young service members were lining up to donate blood. Small businesses near the base, who knew the service members in the community, wonder if they will ever see certain customers again. But don’t call what happened in Pensacola an act of terror just yet.

The media will paint this as a gun problem as they always do. They have already started this narrative. They won’t point to a need to better screen potential foreign aviation students in our military programs. And they certainly will try to avoid (and if they cannot avoid, downplay) the simple fact that this was an act of terror. Palpable anti-American venom spewing from a Twitter account means nothing to them. And of course, the news will continue to focus on impeachment, impeachment, impeachment and bury this story, chalking it up to “gun violence” when it it so much more. Our prayers are with our extended military families and the community of Pensacola.