Extremism in US military is 'sleeping danger' says author of Pentagon report
Source: The Guardian
Thu 9 Jan 2025 07.00 EST
The decorated combat veteran who led the Biden administration’s efforts to counter extremist activity in the US military has warned there could be further domestic attacks by individuals with current or past military ties if the Pentagon fails to take the threat seriously.
Both of the deadly incidents on New Year’s Day were carried out by discharged or serving members of the armed forces. The driver of a pickup truck who killed 14 revellers in New Orleans was a veteran with 13 years service in the US army, while the man who blew up a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Las Vegas Trump hotel, killing himself, was an active-duty Green Beret.
Bishop Garrison, who spearheaded an internal Department of Defense investigation into extremist activity within the military in 2021 and who became the target of a virulent rightwing smear campaign to discredit him and his mission, said that the New Year’s Day attacks should be a wake-up call. “Both incidents demonstrate the sleeping danger that we have failed to deal with as a country.”
In an interview with the Guardian, Garrison said the defense department needed to tackle the dual challenges of radicalisation among military veterans, as displayed in New Orleans, and distress among serving soldiers, as shown by the Las Vegas suicide bomber. “I am worried that we will see more of this type of action taking place, that it will become more bombastic and stronger, and that more people will be injured or killed,” he said. Garrison was appointed by the current defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, to lead the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group in 2021.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/09/military-extremism-bishop-garrison-pentagon
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... a lot of liberals were getting drafted against their will. Nobody wanted to die in Vietnam, and many believed the war was immoral and illegal. It was a different era, but the military draftees (and enlisted folks too) had a completely different mindset. In those days the Army, Navy and Marines had a mixture of political opinions.
My point is that in the last 40 years, it's only volunteers now. When the draft ended, it created a bubble of conservative politics in the military. Volunteers joined the services because they wanted to - or they believed it's their duty to - fight for Uncle Sam. There were no more Jimmy Carters or John Kerrys "on duty." The liberals stayed clear of the military, and mostly went to college or started their working careers.
I know I'm making generalizations, but it is generally true. Liberal-thinking Americans have stayed out of the military for the last 40 years, and here we are.
After the draft ended in the mid-1970s, Uncle Sam needed a recruiting method to keep up the tremendous peacetime-- but Cold War-- military. Solution: teach a trade. HS grads enlisted in the armed forces to learn vocations (aviation repair, cook, military police, combat engineer, medic, etc). Young urban (D) and rural (R) underprivileged men joined the forces. I fell into the first category.
Enter the Reagan Era and the buying up of AM radio stations by the rightwing to give us "hate radio." The military then became a training ground for militia members and survivalists. In the same token, gang members would later join the military for training.
After the 9/11 attacks, the demonization of non-white Christians in the US military became validated, making the invasion of two Muslim countries easy without critical thought. Liberals within the military establishment were outnumbered and "Dubya" wanted his wars. The military academies, particularly the USAFA, became Christian proselytization factories over the past several years.
Two decades of fighting the "Mohammedans," Taliban, "sand n*6%*s," "ragheads" etc and all the inherent PTSD baked the extremism into the cake and hence the DoD report.
In 2017, white supremacist James Harris Jackson (28) served in Afghanistan and was charged with killing a homeless 66-year-old black man. (Imagery: The UK Daily Mail)
Other military veterans on DU may have a different perspective.
And thanks for your service.
