At least the results of an American investigation into the infiltration of dangerous extremist elements into the American Army can be considered alarming.
Nearly 1 in 5 veterans (17.7%) agree that it may be necessary for “true American patriots” to “resort to violence to save the country,” while 13.5% say their government is controlled by a group of “pedophiles running a global child-trafficking operation.”
The research titled “Prevalence of Veteran Support for Extremist Groups and Extremist Beliefs“, was carried out by RAND, a think tank funded mainly by the US, at a time when Washington fears that the veterans community is at increased risk of radicalization to violent extremism. After all, according to US reports, one in five attackers on the Capitol in 2020 was a member of or connected to the military.
“They want to diminish white people,” say 1 in 3
Thus, RAND’s survey of a sample of nearly 1,000 veterans aspires to examine the prevalence of support for specific extremist groups and ideologies, including support for political violence.
In particular, almost one in three veterans (28.8%) believe in the racist theory of the Great Replacement Theory, which, according to its originators, obeys a script that wants the reduction of white people and their replacement.
13.5% support the “QAnon” conspiracy theory, which claims that a cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles run a global child trafficking ring.
17.7% support political violence while at the same time interestingly the majority of these veterans did not support any particular extremist group. Researchers fear that the majority of those who support political violence may also be vulnerable to the recruitment of new extremist groups.
Support for extremist groups – including white supremacy, neo-fascist Proud Boys, black nationalism and Antifa – ranged from 1% (white supremacists) to 5.5% (Antifa) and was generally lower than the resulting figures from previous surveys of the American people more broadly.
Marines are the toughest
Among the military corps that expressed the highest support for extremist groups and extreme beliefs are veterans of the Marine Corps, one of the most elite of the US Armed Forces. Indicatively 4 out of 10 Marine veterans support the theory of the Great Replacement, while almost 3 out of 10 are in favor of political violence in their country!
As RAND researchers document, extremist groups actively target military members and veterans for recruiting purposes because of their training and operational, logistical, and leadership skills. The unique and often lonely experience of leaving the military has been hypothesized to make veterans susceptible to such recruitment.
Finally, the authors compared their results with those from surveys of the general US population. According to the survey, there was no evidence that the veteran community as a whole has higher rates of support for violent extremist groups or extremist beliefs than the American people.
Is such a thing hopeful?
