Andrew G. Bostom is rallying support to save the career of Major Stephen Coughlin, a Pentagon analyst who has been fired for, as Bill Gertz writes in his “Inside the Ring” column (1/11/08), his politically incorrect but “hard-to-refute views on the relationship between Islamic law and Islamist jihad doctrine.”
Coughlin put forth his arguments in his thesis, To Our Great Detriment: Ignoring What Extremists Say About Jihad, which was accepted recently by the National Defense Intelligence College, and made available online (here). Bostom summarizes Coughlin’s work here.
Diana West warns that the firing of Coughlin “brings the military’s woefully belated education on jihad to a halt” and makes it all too “clear that the Pentagon is more concerned with political correctness than protecting the nation.”
As Bostom says, there is some hope that the Pentagon will come to its senses and ensure that Coughlin retains his job. Indeed, Fred Lucas of Cybercast News Service reports today that Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), co-chair of the bi-partisan House Anti-Terrorism Caucus is seeking to find out why Coughlin was fired.
