WHITE SUPREMACISTS AND THE MILITARY
July 14, 2006
Kelly Thomas
(REUTERS/U.S. Army) |
Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists.
Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.
New York Times
I doubt the above quote from the New York Times is true.
Yes, Some soldiers, are nuts enough to have white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or skinheads beliefs, but I don't think this is in any way organized in large groups.
However, I don't doubt that there are some extremist "nuts" in the military. Being trained to kill and wage war doesn't exactly conjure up thoughts of a picnic or Sunday School class. And we want our elite soldiers like the Green Berets, Navy Seals, and Air Force Special Ops to be a little way out-perhap somewhat antisocial, and aggressive.
The possibility of death for a combat soldier is a reality and sometimes to think in those terms takes a kind of mentality. But, I doubt seriously if there is some organized attempt to use the military to train nuts. It may happen but it is happenstance and rare.
A common example is Timothy McVey who enlisted his buddies for his mischief. It seems only natural that even a nut would gravitate to his military buddies. The sad issue is that his buddies didn't stop him but ended up helping him. And those who helped him were pretty less than mainstream themselves.
My experience is that soldiers, drawn from a population at possibly a level of minimal emotional and mental sophistication, might, under the right circumstances, engage in criminal activity. This is why leadership and supervision in the military is so absolutely essential. Just imagine Abu Ghraib and the "alleged" rape in Mahmoudiya if the proper leadership and supervision had been in evidence. It wouldn't have happened, plain and simple.
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