Wow! This is heavy stuff...

According to a Southern Poverty Law Center report, (also covered in the Washington Post):

Ten years after Pentagon leaders toughened policies
on extremist activities by active duty personnel -- a move that came in
the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing by decorated Gulf War combat
veteran Timothy McVeigh and the murder of a black couple by members of
a skinhead gang in the elite 82nd Airborne Division -- large numbers of
neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists continue to infiltrate the ranks of
the world's best-trained, best-equipped fighting force. Military
recruiters and base commanders, under intense pressure from the war in
Iraq to fill the ranks, often look the other way.



Neo-Nazis "stretch across all branches of service, they are linking up
across the branches once they're inside, and they are hard-core,"
Department of Defense gang detective Scott Barfield told the
Intelligence Report. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," he
added. "That's a problem."

The SPLC has a timeline illustrating instances of extremism in the military.  It
appears that the government has made efforts in the past to eliminate
the problem.  I do not mean to fault them for lack of effort.
 Rather, my point is this: it is a lot harder to keep the
military in top professional form, when the forces are stretched too
thin, fighting an unnecessary war.  

If military recruiters are knowingly bending the rules, and military
officers are knowingly or negligently allowing unfit members to serve,
and if such deceit and/or negligence led to the atrocities in Iraq,
then this was not mere collateral damage.  It was criminal, and
the culpability goes right to the top of the chain of command.



There are a lot of "ifs" in the preceding paragraph, and we need to be
prudent, not jump to conclusions.  But given the fact that the
US military is under civilian control, it is necessary that we
civilians keep an eye on what is happening.  The fact is, we
are responsible fro what is going on over there.  



I can't help but add one more point to this montage.  In order
for us to exercise out responsibility, we need a free press.
 That is, we need journalists who are not intimidated
by the government.

If this is true, it's a very disturbing thing. Not only because of it's implications in influencing attrocities in Iraq, but also the idea that we are providing professional military training to a whole new generation of American Terrorist.

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Posted by: Marty at July 11, 2006 08:52 AM

Posted by: T-Steel at July 11, 2006 08:59 AM

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at July 11, 2006 08:45 PM