America is in an escalating war with radical Islam, and the military must be armed and ready to protect themselves and the nation's citizens in the homeland, retired Army Gen. Paul Vallely tells
Newsmax TV.
In a panel discussion Friday led by Ric Blackwell on "Newsmax Prime," Vallely says the deadly attack by a lone gunman on a military recruitment center in Chattanooga, Tenn.– killing four unarmed Marines –
shows why forces should be armed at installations "just like they are in the armed forces in Israel – because we are in a state of war."
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No military personnel except for guards and military police have been allowed to carry weapons on bases except during training since the early 1990s.
"We have been at war since 1979 with radical Islam," Vallely asserts. "Now that has escalated and evolved into what we see today. Cells in America being developed, our borders crossed by radical Islamists, and also what's being done through the mosque and recruiting and through the social networking."
But, Vallely argues, "our government is not protecting us right now and our president isn't."
"They are absolutely inept in securing America today," he says, adding terrorists in the Middle East "look at our government as weak, they look at… targeting the soft targets and hard targets and they know they can hit us any time, any place."
"And when you have that kind of a situation, that's why you have to bolster up and go on a war footing and that's what we need to do to protect America," he says.
Former assistant FBI director Ron Hosko adds the Thursday slayings of four Marines by shooter Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez is "likely an example of missed opportunities."
"In many of those incidents that the FBI studied in a 13-year review, they determined that there were pre-event indicators in many of them," Hosko says.
"So the question is, is that a pre-event indicator that a family or friend would have or should have known? Is there a classmate, a schoolmate? Or is it a pre-event indicator that somehow law enforcement should have noticed, that the FBI should have noticed, that other intelligence services might have noticed?"
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