- Welcome, Colonel North.

First, just give us your takeon concerns over extremism

in the U.S. military.

- Well, Jenna, obviouslythere are issues, you know,

and this is not thefirst time we've talked

about loyalty in our military.

Back in World War II, youngguys coming into the military

when they were drafted,were asked, are you now,

or have you ever been amember of the Communist Party

or part of a communist group?

And then it was broadenedto include Nazis.

And that idea of a loyalty oath has been

with us for a long time.

My concern is, youknow, we in the military

we've got an expression that we use,

particularly when you're about to go

into a very dangerous situation.

The guy next to yousays, "I have your back."

Now, those four words aren'tsome kind of sentiment.

It's a pledge.

It's like the modernversion of that pledge,

"our honor, our sacred honorand our lives and fortunes,"

going all the way back to theDeclaration of Independence.

It's loyalty up and loyalty down.

It's not a matter of tryingto hope that somebody

at the top of the pyramidis gonna back you up.

It's expected.

And my concern is that an awful lot

of this sounds like a witch hunt.

And by that, I mean,it's not something about,

well we've been seen in KU Klux Klan garb.

It's a guy who might've gotten a tattoo

or some kind of pattern, aSt. George Cross, for example,

which is being used by badpeople to do bad things.

None of us want to havethose who are not loyal

to our country and to the oaththat we took to one another

and our country, and to protectand serve the Constitution.

None of us want people in our military

who can't do that and won't do that.

My question is, if those of uswho believe in, for example,

traditional marriage, ordon't want to be serving

with people who are gonnamake you less ready,

like for example, someone who'shad a sex change operation,

can't be deployable.

Are you still allowed to say things

like that in our military?

Or is that the kind of thingwe're now gonna keep banned

as part of this witch hunt?

That's my concern.

- It's a good question.

What are your thoughts onDefense Secretary Austin's

comments that you heard there?

- Well, look, it sounds it sounds like

the right kind of thing.

The problem is when you start going after

someone's politics, or forexample, their moral behavior;

for example, I'll give you the issue.

Transgender personnelcan't serve overseas.

They can't go into combat.

They can't be deployed.

And yet, this administration is going to

make that mandatory.

You can come into the military

to have a sex change operation.

And even though you're not deployable,

it doesn't contribute a thing.

So if you stand up and say that,

or a chaplain says somethingabout the way people behave

in marriage, out of the Bible,is that gonna be banned?

Is that the kind of thingthat's gonna be deemed

to be disloyal?

And so my concern is, I thinkit's wonderful to make sure

that we've got loyalty in the ranks.

You know, Form 86, standardform for security clearance

used to be four pages long.

It's now over a hundred pages long

and they wanna know absolutelyeverything about you

to get a security clearance.

I look at those kinds of things and I say,

"Okay, that's good, butif a kid got a tattoo

"that somebody now deems tobe the wrong kind of thing,

"are we gonna throw 'emout of the military?

I hope not.

- Colonel North, sowhat's the solution here?

Is there a better answer than tamping down

on what the culture islabeling as extreme?

- Well look, just becauseI'm a white person

does not mean I'm a racist.

According to the Washington (com)Post,

the nearest newspaper towhere I'm sitting right here

in my office in Dulles,Virginia, according to them,

just because I'm white, I'm a racist.

That's just baloney!

I mean, the bottom line ofwhat we are as a culture

isn't necessarily beingdefined anymore by professors

on college campuses thatwon't let conservatives

go out and speak.

They're not necessarily gonna be defined

by somebody getting atattoo that somebody now

deems to be the wrongkind of tattoo to have,

when you join the military.

Remember this is an all volunteer force.

We can't just draft people off the streets

and send them into thearmed forces anymore.

Since 1973, it's beenan all volunteer force.

You really wanna alienate everybody by,

let's see, what's your realview on this particular issue?

I don't think that a political litmus test

is what we want in our military.

- Yeah.

Oliver North, ColonelNorth, we have to ask you

and congratulate you on your new book.

What can you tell us about it?

- Here.

In fact, this is interviews with 500,

actually more than 500veterans of our armed forces.

And these are guys that we've served with

and we're asking them thosesame kinds of questions.

I mean, what is it that makesyou now ask the question,

"Veterans' Lament.

"Is this the Americaour heroes fought for?"

I mean, the bottom line of this book is

the warning call that Ijust sounded right now.

The troops that I servedwith and that David and I

interviewed for this book,those kinds of young Americans

know the meaning of thosewords, "I've got your back."

And they're asking, canour current administration,

even though this book was written

before Biden came to office,

the views reflected in thisbook are the kinds of things

we're talking about rightnow in this broadcast

with you, Jenna.

- Yeah, extremely relevant.

And just real quickly for our viewers,

where can they find your book?

How can they get ahold of it?

- Well, you know, Amazonhasn't dropped it yet. (laughs)

You know, my publishingcompany, Fidelis Publishing

is out there to help people who otherwise

couldn't get published somewhere else.

But you can still get it at Amazon.

- All right, Colonel Oliver North,

it's always good to see you.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thanks Jenna, great to be with you.