By Jude Braithwaite
White supremacy is undeniably on the rise in America, and the US military has directly played a major role in not only sustaining but promoting white supremacy and acts of terrorism. Despite clear signs linking radicalization with spending time in the military, this is an issue that has repeatedly been ignored and allowed to fester within the ranks of the US military. Cases which include Wade Page, Timothy McVeigh, and Christopher Hasson, a Coast Guard Lieutenant who was stockpiling weapons for a race war, all share the common experience of being enlisted in the US military. These three cases represent a fraction of those who have left the military to join far-right groups, some of whom participated in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, and the January 6th Capitol riots. Up until now, intelligence services have taken a very passive role in trying to prevent the further radicalization of US troops. To avert further radicalization of white supremacists in the US military, major structural reforms are required in the recruitment process, training, policy enactment, and reporting.
White Supremacist groups have been utilizing military training for their followers since the formation of the modern American state. After the Civil War, “The Ku Klux Klan recruited openly in the armed forces for decades, and at the peak of its influence in the 1920s it even had at least one official chapter aboard a Navy battleship, the Tennessee”. The article continues by explaining how during the Vietnam War, KKK members in the US military celebrated the death of MLK by “parading” in white robes around their camps. These events demonstrate the long-lasting nature of this issue in American military history.
Extremism in the US military is by no means a new phenomenon, and efforts to reconcile this issue have so far fallen short of their goal. Instead of moving towards eliminating the issue, CSIS has reported survey results showing that 36 percent of military personnel have witnessed acts of white nationalism in 2020, an increase from 22 percent in 2019. The incident that exposed how deeply embedded white nationalism is in the US military came on January 6th, 2020. The events on January 6th involved four reservists, two members of the national guard, one active-duty marine, and 91 veterans.
The issue of white supremacists in the US military has grown to become a significant national security problem that is only now beginning to gain the attention of governmental oversight committees. The point at issue does not take place after enlistment, rather it is an ongoing process that can begin before, or after serving time in the military. In some cases, right-wing and terrorist groups recommended that their followers enlist in the military with the goal of gaining experience with weapons and strategy, making the military an ideal space for white nationalist sentiments to spread. This results in far-right groups having a readily trained and armed force of loyal followers who are committed to the idea of a “race war”, just as Christopher Hasson was.
The US government has remained dangerously quiet on this issue. A report conducted by ProPublica in 2017 found that, “...the Pentagon was not providing data on hate crimes to the FBI as required by law. As a result, the level of hate crime that may exist in the Armed Forces is unknown. This is unacceptable and needs to be rectified”. While providing testimony to Congress on the matter, Heidi L. Beirich explains that the US government has chosen to ignore this issue for decades. This is assisted by the fact, as Heidi L. Beirich states, that there is no investigative body that exists that can fully look into how deep this issue truly runs. There is a concerning lack of information on white supremacists in the US military due to the lack of urgency surrounding it. There is no incentive for any investigation because as far as the US government is concerned it’s not an issue that exists. The events that took place in Charlottesville in 2017 and on January 6th, 2021 have since become the catalyst that has increased concern over this issue.
White supremacists in the military are enabled not only by the lack of action being taken against them but also by the soft sentencing passed if they are found guilty. Examples of light sentencing include Master Sergeant Cory Reeves who was found to be a member of Identity Evropa. As punishment, he was demoted one rank. Two members of the Georgia National Guard were only kicked out after it was found that they led a “racist pagan group”. If this is to become an issue the Pentagon investigates seriously, deterring factors such as punishments must become much harsher.
Expulsion from the military, in cases where white supremacists are dishonorably discharged, only serves as a short-term solution. These individuals will most likely fall back on right-wing militia groups where they now have the capacity to share all the information that they learned while serving in the military. Any solution must root out domestic terrorists from the military while attempting to drive them away from right-wing militia groups. That is where harsher punishments must be enacted to deter those actions.
Due to the long-lasting and fundamental nature of extremism in the military, any significant change will have to happen over a long period of time. ADL has recommended better screenings for military recruits that pay more attention to body art and posts on social media posts that could signal extremist beliefs. Although these are important and necessary steps, they are very superficial and could never deal with the full extent of the problem. What they do understand is that institutional reform is required that would create regulating, training, and reporting mechanisms. In addition, the FBI should place covert agents amongst existing recruits and current ranks that can try and locate who holds extremist beliefs.
Historical inadequacies of addressing the issue of white extremism in the military are being confronted and understood, but the challenge faced by the US government now is how to terminate an issue that they have actively allowed to progress. The US military must implement universal regulations across all military branches. This is a sentiment supported by ADL which states that the military must enact policies that use precise, and concise language to address extremism in the military. There must be concrete ways of addressing the issue that can keep up with how extremist organizations influence members of the military and ensure that policy is always one step ahead of the extremist groups.
Training would need to meet two criteria: Teaching how to spot extremists, as well as the danger of collaborating with or being a member of a white nationalist organization. Commanders and Lieutenants should have to undergo necessary training that equips them with the skills to spot out-of-ordinary behavior and demeanors. To the latter point, a standard punishment should also be implemented across the military that is severe enough to deter people from using the military branches for training with the goal of passing that information to outside groups. This point is at the core of what the training would do: Setting universal standards of conduct, as well as the understanding that using military branches for helping white nationalist groups is fallacious.
The third aspect which should be used to support the new training programs and policies is reporting. Significant numbers of existing military personnel have encountered white extremism in the military as reported by Heidi L. Beirich. The existence of better structures that allow military personnel who witness acts of extremism to report what they see would not only allow the military to better understand how big of an issue this is but also quickly suspend or discharge those in question. Due to how closely tied extremists have been with the US military, which dates back to the Civil War period, no fix will be immediate, but the government must ensure that they begin moving in the right direction to put an end to this long-lasting problem.
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