Station: 850 KOA
Show: Rosen (Michael Brown substituting for Rosen)
Guest: Coffman
Link: http://www.850koa.com/pages/mikerosen.html
Date: 12/13/2011
Topics: terrorism, Islam, Fort Hood, Hasan, Abdo

Coffman: I think there’s a problem in our military. Because this administration wants to be politically correct, and we sacrificed the lives of 13 Americans, soldiers, on the alter of political correctness at Fort Hood, in addition to the 30 wounded. And I have gone through Major Hasan’s personnel file, and I can tell you there was red flag, after red flag, after red flag, where he was becoming radicalized, where the military did nothing other than promote him from Captain to Major. I mean stunning. And they will not, and what is stunning about this administration is, they will not allow his military records to be released to the public. …

Brown: I had not heard that….

Coffman: I am not against Muslim Americans. Let me tell you. I served in Iraq with the United States Marine Corps and Muslim Americans served in the military and served with distinction there and were important to our war effort. But we’ve got to do a vetting of people, a counter-intelligence, the same that we did during the Cold War.

Brown: Right.

Coffman: And an acknowledgement that we are at war today with an ideology and it’s cloaked in a religion called radical Islam. … During the Cold War, we were at war with an ideology or in conflict with an ideology, Marxist Communism, and I was required, when I enlisted in the United States Army in 1972, before I was transferred into the Marine Corps, that I was required to affirm that I did not have contact or any membership in a list of organizations that were sympathetic to communism or were communist organizations. And we had an active counter-intelligence operation within the United States military to make sure our ranks were not infiltrated by those sympathetic with the ideology that was in conflict or at war with the United States. We need that same mentality today, to have that active counter-intelligence effort, to make sure that our ranks are not infiltrated by those sympathetic to radical Islam, like Major Hasan, like Private First Class Abdo. And I think that is very important. And I think that it would also help Muslim Americans who are serving because then those soldiers, Marines, and airmen, serving alongside of them would understand that they have been vetted and that they can be trusted. And so I think it would be positive from a number of perspectives. And also it would prevent Muslim Americans from becoming radicalized once they are in the military because of the fact that they would be trusted because they have been vetted…. I served in ground combat units in both the United States Army and Marine Corps. And those relationships between the soldiers and Marines on the ground is basically developing an interdependent bond and trust. And if that trust isn’t there, my concern is that if you have Muslim –American soldiers and Marines, that they are going to be alienated by virtue of the fact that they are not vetted under the current system, and there rises questions about trust. And that could lead to alienation of those soldiers and Marines. And through that there could be an attraction to becoming radicalized.

Brown: And that’s how they start the radicalization process because they are alienated. We should figure out ways to incorporate them as much as possible.

Coffman: Absolutely. We are going down the wrong path in this political correctness, and you know, I fear that we are going to take more casualties as a result. There are going to be more Fort Hoods as result of it. And you know, we’ve got to recognize that we are at war with an ideology. It may be cloaked in a religion, but it’s an ideology. The sooner we realize that, the better off we are as a country, the better we are able not simply to protect our soldiers, Marines, and Sailors, but we are better able to reach our objectives in terms of securing this country.