The Left hyped up the fever dream the military was infiltrated by extremist threats for years, and the charade fell apart over Christmas. But the appetite for accountability on the Left magically disappeared as soon as the report found there was “no evidence” to support their claims in the first place.
The Pentagon released its long-awaited report on “domestic extremism” in the military, which was commissioned in April of 2021 following the Jan. 6 riot in which a number of active duty members and veterans participated. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin commissioned the report to get better insight into the “problem.”
TOPSHOT – US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin looks on during a joint press conference with Israel’s defence minister, in Tel Aviv on December 18, 2023. (Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP) (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)
But after two years of taxpayer dollar-funded research and interviews with more than 100 defense officials and experts, government studies, articles and other data, the study conducted by the Institute for Defense Analyses found the Department of Defense may have inflated the “problem.”
The report also found that if anything, the “risk to the military from widespread polarization and division in the ranks may be a greater risk than the radicalization of a few service members.”
It should come as no surprise there was intense polarization within the military over alleged extremism when the media acted as a weaponized arm of the government.
NBC News ran the headline: “Pentagon report warns of threat from white supremacists inside the military” in February of 2021, prior to the commission of the study. Weeks later Axios published a story entitled: “Pentagon report: Domestic extremists pose serious threat to the military.”
VICE News flat out claimed extremism existed in the ranks with their video piece: “American Terror: The Military’s Problem With Extremism in the Ranks.”
The Boston Globe published in July a piece : “‘The single biggest threat to the security of the country’: Extremism in the military is alarming experts.”
Of course these reports were bolstered, in part, by cries of 15 Democratic lawmakers who said in a letter to the Department of Defense that “White supremacists are joining the military and permeating the ranks.”
“The spread of white supremacist ideology is dangerous for the military and threatens to rupture civil-military safeguards that our democracy requires,” the letter read.
The amplification of claims such as these and the successful fear mongering by the left-wing media may have contributed to the Pentagon’s decision in December of 2021 to issue new rules prohibiting military members from engaging in so-called “extremist activities” which included simply “liking” something on social media that was considered an extremist view. (RELATED: ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Kills Fewer Americans Than Lightning Strikes, GAO Report Reveals)
The regulations did not specify what was considered an extremist organization or message and instead left that up to commanders in charge. And despite the hoopla, less than 100 service members were actually accused of being involved in extremist activity in 2021.
But Austin didn’t seem to care about potential division within the military nor the politicization of something that could be very serious. Austin appointed Bishop Garrison to lead Countering Extremism Working Group (CEWG) in 2021 even though Garrison tweeted in 2019 any supporter of then-President Donald Trump was an unequivocal supporter of extremism and racism.
Of course we didn’t need to wait for the Pentagon to release the latest findings because anyone with an iota of a brain cell could have looked at all the other evidence available coupled with a general distrust in media narratives and determined something was amiss.
A survey conducted by the RAND Corporation in May of 2023 found veterans are less likely to support far-right or far-left extremist groups when compared to the general public despite the media’s fever dream. RAND found zero evidence to support the claim veterans are more likely to be part of an extremist group than average Americans.
“Those initial reports spurred a lot of fear and concern,” the study’s lead author Todd Helmus told NPR. “But no one’s actually looked at the numbers.”