I mentioned a few days ago how the U.S. Military continues to expel gay and lesbian service members under Don't Ask, Don't Tell even while recruiting standards have been so lowered that felons, non-high school graduates and racists are regularly inducted into the armed services. Much to my surprise, the Virginian Pilot has a long article on the Southern Poverty Law Center 's request on Friday that Congress strengthen policies against racial extremists in uniform. Salon also had a good article last month entitled "Neo-Nazis are in the Army Now," which I recommend readers read in full as well. Here is a quote from the Salon story:*
Because of his tattoos and his racist comments, most of his buddies and his commanding officers were aware of his Nazism. "They all knew in my unit," he says. "They would always kid around and say, 'Hey, you're that skinhead!'" But no one sounded an alarm to higher-ups. "I would volunteer for all the hardest missions, and they were like, 'Let Fogarty go.' They didn't want to get rid of me." Fogarty left the Army in 2005 with an honorable discharge. He says he was asked to reenlist. He declined. He was sick of the system.
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The lax regulations have also opened the military's doors to neo-Nazis, white supremacists and gang members — with drastic consequences. Some neo-Nazis have been charged with crimes inside the military, and others have been linked to recruitment efforts for the white right.
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Carter F. Smith is a former military investigator who worked with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command from 2004 to 2006, when he helped to root out gang violence in troops. "When you need more soldiers, you lower the standards, whether you say so or not," he says. "The increase in gangs and extremists is an indicator of this." Military investigators may be concerned about white supremacists, he says. "But they have a war to fight, and they don't have incentive to slow down."
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This trend is a frightening prospect and it will take Congressional action since too many in senior military positions will not take the action needed to root out racists and Neo-Nazi members - even though they have no problem unleashing witch hunts for gays. I'm both surprised and please that the Virginian Pilot ran the story, although based on some the comments posted by readers, we have our share of white supremacists in this area. Here are highlights from the Pilot's article:
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"Evidence continues to mount that current Pentagon policies are inadequate to prevent racial extremists from joining and serving in the armed forces," Morris Dees, founder of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote to the heads of four congressional committees. "Because the presence of extremists in the armed forces is a serious threat to the safety of the American public, we believe Congressional action is warranted."
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Dees noted that center has recently found dozens of personal profiles of self-described military members on a neo-Nazi Web site. Many contain pictures of individuals in front of Nazi flags, some in military uniforms. The individuals don't use their real or full names on the site, and the center didn't try to determine who they were. Two men identified themselves as sailors on the white supremacist Internet forum New Saxon, Beirich said. One used the screen name "gunman88" - 88 being neo-Nazi shorthand for "Heil Hitler" - while the other went by "clarkpatrick88."
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One Navy officer the center wants to see banned from service is Lt. Cmdr. John Sharpe. Sharpe was a Norfolk-based public affairs officer aboard the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in 2007 when a newspaper called attention to essays and books he had written and edited. Sharpe, who is Catholic, wrote numerous essays after the 9/11 attacks. In one, he contended that the real enemy is not Islamic extremism or al-Qaida, it is "mindless pluralism which moves toward a universal brotherhood of nations" in which "all the separate races and religions shall disappear."
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A Navy spokesman did not respond Friday to a request for comment on the letter.
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It goes almost without saying that these folks typically hold a severe prejudice against LBGT Americans as well as black, Jews, and other non-Christians
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