re: #445 Salamantis

In fact, there are already several former US military personnel who are presently members of these radical right wing racist groups. This is unfortunate; what would be even more unfortunate would be for them to succeed in recruiting more. Who knows how many of their nonmilitary radical brethren they have trained in the killing arts?

The problem will only grow if it is ignored; I, for one, am glad that they are keeping an eye on it, and trying to minimize successful recruitment by educating US military members about these groups.

You make two unsubstantiated claims here:

1) There are “several” former US military personnel who are presently members of these radical “right wing” racist groups, and,

2) The problem will only grow if ignored.

Here’s the reality of the situation:

So, how many are “some”? You can read the FBI report, titled “White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11,” here. Notwithstanding the deliberate vagueness of the Homeland Security document, the FBI was actually very specific:

A review of FBI white supremacist extremist cases from October 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with confirmed or claimed military service active in the extremist movement at some time during the reporting period. This number is minuscule in comparison with the projected US veteran population of 23,816,000 as of 2 May 2008, or the 1,416,037 active duty military personnel as of 30 April 2008. …

According to FBI information, an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9 percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There you have it: a whopping 19 actual or alleged veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan have joined the “extremist movement.” (The FBI notes that some of these “may have inflated their resumes with fictional military experience to impress others within the movement.”)

So, to counter your two claims:

1) Only 203 out of 23,816,000 veterans have been identified as belonging to such extremist groups, and

2) Only 19 recent (i.e. Iraq/Afghanistan) veterans have been thus identified.

In other words, 1 out of every 100,000 veterans is a member of such groups. Compared to the US population at-large, it would appear that the percentage of veterans in such groups is far lower than percentage of adult Americans as a whole.

The FBI report indicates neither a past/present concern, nor an increasing trend.

Why should our returning veterans need to be “educated” about such groups? They have proven themselves not to be particularly susceptible to recruitment - and in fact, less susceptible.