Exploring Hate: An inside look at anti-extremism training in the military

There are too many is s to prepare for all of them

I also remember a Captain telling me he couldn't tell one black soldier from another. We are all Americans.

Let's take the first part of the comment above. "Nearly one in six people charged in the January 6 Capitol siege are military veterans." The word Veterans was used...not active duty, reservist, guardsman, veterans. Let me start by saying that what anyone that was part of at the capitol di WAS WRONG and cannot be spun any other way...period. HOWEVER, they are linking a few of these to their past service. Just because there were civilians storming the capitol doesn't mean they got their extremist ideologies from the service. Someone somewhere got that tagline that they were veterans and it imploded that all veterans and service members are extremists and we need to stand down and retrain them immediately. I served for 26 years on AD and National Guard and never once did I hear any extremist views...even as a commander twice!! I still serve in a govt capacity among some of the most patriotic young men and women this nation has to offer and for them to be told that they can't express personal views without being called an extremist is wrong. Making them reaffirm an oath they had already taken to me is a slap in the face...that takes away that special moment when they were first sworn in that it didn't mean anything to them at all. If you find that you have extremists then root them out like we always have but to paint DoD as a breeding ground for extremist, well that is just wrong and a slap to everyone who has and is currently serving under that oath IMHO.