After Capitol Riot, Pentagon Announces New Efforts to Weed Out Extremism Among Troops
Defense Department officials acknowledge that rooting out far-right extremist thinking from a military of 1.3 million active-duty troops will be an uphill slog.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III warned in a memo on Friday that “any extremist behavior in the force can have an outsized impact.”Credit...Alex Brandon/Associated Press
April 9, 2021
WASHINGTON — One young soldier said that for the first four months after he joined his Army unit, a flag representing the right-wing militia the Three Percenters hung in the entry hall of his barracks.
A Black Marine described feeling sick when he saw the iconic red-and-gold flag of his military service being waved by rioters during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.