The United States Army is strict against extremism, terming it as a harmful behavior that neglects the responsibilities entrusted to the military and instead undermines the rule of law. This has led to the establishment of counter-extremism groups by the Department of Defense. According to Helmus (2021), the year 2021 was found to have the highest number of extremists with military backgrounds. The importance of this topic is to investigate the contribution of the military towards extremism in society. Even though the military ensures society’s safety, its extremism has far-reaching consequences.
Veterans and active duty officers in the United States have been involved in various domestic terror incidences. According to Jones (2021), one of the reasons that support this statistic is extremist groups targeting veterans due to the highly valuable skills they possess, which make them relevant in such contexts.
Consequently, other reasons include the higher chances of individuals in the military being mentally ill due to exposure to hostile environments. Mental illness, when combined with other factors such as traumatic events and hostile environments, which military officers are more likely to encounter, may lead to episodes of violent extremism.
In conclusion, it is evident that the military has a greater influence on extremism, attributed to domestic terror incidences and mental illness. Therefore, to eradicate this situation, the government should, through thick and thin, put strategic measures to curb the ongoing uptick of extremism cases in the U.S. Army. Even if it means recruiting surveillance officers to tighten the investigation process on extremism cases.
In the past five years, cases have been at an all-time high, with a mean of 52 subjects who have military backgrounds added to the list yearly. Jensen, Kane & Akers (2022) state that the most infamous case of all was the attack on the United States Capitol which had 151 defendants who had military backgrounds. Approximately half of the extremism offenders with military backgrounds have portrayed violent extremism, making it the most dominant form of extremism among them.
Among the United States Army divisions on record for affiliated extremist individuals, the Army, the Marine Corps, and the Navy are the top three with the highest numbers, respectively. The Air National Guard, Coast Guard, and Air Force Reserves had the least number of extremists affiliated with them. Ironically, individuals with no military background have higher rates of successfully conducting violent attacks than those with a military background.
References
Helmus, T. C., Byrne, H. J., & Mallory, K. (2021). Countering Violent Extremism in the US Military. RAND Corporation.
Jensen, M., Kane, S., & Akers, E. (2022). Extremism in the Ranks and After. Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security.
Jones, S. G (2021). Violent Domestic Extremist Groups and the Recruitment of Veterans. Center for Strategic and International Studies. Web.