'War of ideas' claims neo-con casualty

A look at one of the ignorant loons that has been "protecting" us.

WASHINGTON - Neo-conservative hawks lamented the latest casualty in the "war on terror" last Friday, as the ax fell on Stephen Coughlin's job. The Pentagon decided not to renew the contract of its "foremost" specialist on Islamic law and Islamic extremism when it ends in March, citing budget cuts.

But Coughlin's supporters say the jihad maven was unjustly fired because his message was too politically hot and far too inconvenient for government bureaucrats eager to make nice with Muslim groups that - so decry right-wing hawks - merely serve as front organizations for more nefarious "Islamo-fascists".

And it appears they are waging a campaign in the conservative press to combat what they believe amounts to the double standards within the warm and fuzzy "politically correct" Washington bureaucracy. While most policy-makers and experts acknowledge that Washington has a serious public diplomacy problem on its hands - especially with regard to Arabs and Muslims - Coughlin's dismissal and its aftermath reflect the latest salvo by neo-cons to retain the dubious language of the "war on terror".

"If allowed to stand, the effect of Major Coughlin's dismissal would be a surgical strike on a man who is arguably one of the most knowledgeable opponents of sharia - not only in the Defense Department, but inside the entire US government," wrote right-wing polemicist Frank Gaffney, who also heads the Center for Security Policy, in the Washington Times. As a casualty in the war of ideas, he sarcastically wrote, Coughlin may perhaps "receive its first Purple Heart".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JA18Ak02.html