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Report: Woke Pentagon Worried Troops View BLM/Antifa and Capitol Hill Riots Equally

Report: Woke Pentagon Worried Troops View BLM/Antifa and Capitol Hill Riots Equally

“The Pentagon is also weighing whether any additional mechanisms are needed, such as ways for service members to confidentially report potential extremist behavior within their units.”

During his confirmation hearing, now-Penatgon chief Lloyd Austin vowed to purge “ideological enemies . . . within our own ranks.”  Wasting little time, he ordered a military-wide “stand down” to address extremism within our nation’s armed forces.

Reports are now surfacing that the Pentagon is distressed that their attempts to ferret out wrongthink under the guise of ‘extremism’ have a hit a snag.

Apparently, some military members view the events at the Capitol on January 6th and the year-long BLM/antifa rioting, looting, vandalism, arson, and murder as equally problematic. This reportedly “worries” Pentagon officials.

In their article entitled, “Some U.S. troops view Capitol riots, racial protests equally, worrying Pentagon leaders, ” the Daily Press reports:

During military training sessions to address extremism in the ranks, some service members have challenged why the Pentagon is not treating the violence during racial injustice protests last summer as equal to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.

That the two events are viewed as equivalent by some troops has caught the Pentagon’s attention in its effort to educate service members that extremist views and activity — on either side of the political spectrum — go against the oath they took when they joined the military, the top enlisted leader told reporters on Thursday.

“This is coming from every echelon that we’re talking to,” said Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón Colón-López. “Some people may think that, ‘all right, so the events of 6 January happened. How come you’re not looking at the situation that was going on in Seattle prior to that?’”

Of course federal facilities, from ICE facilities to courthouses, were and continue to be targeted by BLM/antifa anarchists, but that’s different.  They are protesting a righteous cause and thus not extremist.  Or something.

To address this serious problem of insufficient wokeness among military members, the Pentagon is reportedly considering setting up an anonymous means for military members to report on their peers’ wrongthink.

After the stand downs are completed there will be follow-up training and outreach.  The Daily Press continues:

The Pentagon is also weighing whether any additional mechanisms are needed, such as ways for service members to confidentially report potential extremist behavior within their units. Similar efforts for officially reporting sexual harassment have struggled over the years to gain the confidence of the troops, fearing retaliation, although after a concerted push by the Defense Department those reporting numbers have started to rise.

Military.com has more on the proposed efforts to root out “extremism” in our military.

Tougher enforcement is now under consideration at the highest levels of government.

Some measures under consideration include: better vetting of incoming recruits, monitoring social media for those in sensitive positions, adding questions about extremism to command climate surveys, a tattoo database so commanders know what to look for, increased training and an accountability mindset that encourages reporting.

Cumulatively, the impact would be swift, with career-ending discharges for anyone involved in extremist activities.

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Comments

rabid wombat | March 21, 2021 at 6:26 pm

Only people like John F Kerry think the troops are stupid….

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/john_kerry_get_an_education_or_get_stuck_in_iraq/

    Eddie Coyle in reply to rabid wombat. | March 22, 2021 at 9:21 am

    Sorry we all can’t be born with a silver spoon in our mouth then trade up to a platinum spoon by marrying an available condiment heiress…

“The deadly riot at the capitol….”

The one where several people died of natural causes, and the only homicide was perpetrated by a government official against an un-armed civilian”

THAT “deadly riot?”

    rayc in reply to Paul. | March 21, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    They still haven’t released who did it, I wonder if it’s one of the two Capitol Policer who have since committed suicide?

      gonzotx in reply to rayc. | March 21, 2021 at 6:46 pm

      That’s really sad to hear

      amatuerwrangler in reply to rayc. | March 21, 2021 at 8:19 pm

      I’ve had that question since around Jan 16th…. And,once again, the silence says so much more than mere words can.

      randian in reply to rayc. | March 21, 2021 at 8:53 pm

      They still haven’t released who did it, I wonder if it’s one of the two Capitol Policer who have since committed suicide?

      They would make convenient scapegoats to cover for the real murderer.

      henrybowman in reply to rayc. | March 21, 2021 at 9:06 pm

      Tough to say. I read an interview with the purported culprit’s attorney (culprit’s ID was not supplied), so somebody is up on charges for this who is not dead.

      ConradCA in reply to rayc. | March 22, 2021 at 12:59 pm

      Only an idiot would think the ANTIFA/BLM riots are equal. The ANTIFA/BLM riots were much worse.

    That’s the one.

    Skip in reply to Paul. | March 21, 2021 at 7:32 pm

    In The Deep Rig Patrick Byrne names the suspect, a foreign national who works for the government. Says he was at the Congress Baseball game where there was a shooting.

how long before the TO&E for all the various units have a zampolit slot or 3 in them?

and this retired Army guy doesn’t view the “antifa”/BLM violence as being the equivalent to the events of 6 JAN 21: the first ones were deliberate attacks on the people and fabric of my country.

the second was the utterly predictable reaction of the citizens of a country who have been disenfranchised by blatant voting fraud on a national scale. violent revolutions have occurred over less.

Colon-Lopez (CZ) keeps referring to January 6 as a “deadly riot,” but the only victims were protestors: two elderly demonstrators from exertion, one from being trampled by the crowd (all heartbreaking but unintentional), and one assassinated by law enforcement.

Every attempt the left has desperately concocted to blame after-the-fact deaths of non-demonstrators on demonstrators has blown up in their face, including several that were unambiguous suicides.

Contrast this with the Antifa/BLM riots, which resulted in many deaths of innocent nonparticipants, including LEOs.

Here’s your problem, CZ: once you train your troops in how to detect things like camouflaged IEDs, you find it makes them unusually resistant to other types of bullshit as well.

I called this a month ago. The military is going to enforce left wing group think and encourage service members to snitch on anyone who doesn’t obediently parrot left wing positions. Antifa = Good. Republicans = Bad.

The bureaucrat-track officers newly have woke as an incentive, so there will be a competition among them for the most woke for a while.

I don’t know what they’ll do about disgust in the troops.

Pentagon Worried Troops View BLM/Antifa and Capitol Hill Riots Equally.

It should. The months-long, unchecked criminal orgy of destruction and violence all last Summer by vile racists and vicious anarchists which resulted in 2 dozen MURDERS, BILLIONS in property damage, and untold thousands left out-of-work galactically dwarfs a measly, ‘mostly peaceful’ stroll through the halls of Congress by unarmed selfie fetishists.

#NotMyPresident #NotMyValues #StolenElection #RESIST

    JusticeDelivered in reply to LB1901. | March 21, 2021 at 8:14 pm

    At least four orders of magnitude worse. I am amazed that they did not get that, or maybe they did, Maybe Lloyd Austin has run into large numbers of soldiers who understand that, and he choses to not disclose it?

The Leftists ( Democrats) want a army of woke only.

JusticeDelivered | March 21, 2021 at 7:45 pm

It seems unwise for black racists to target trained soldiers. Those they unjustly persecute could play a role in correcting these problems.

They were worse in every statistic.

This is exhibit A in the case against Lloyd Austin, The JCS and all the other senior officers and many of the senior enlisted that permeate our Military today. They are completely removed from the reality of the “troops” they purport to lead. In their minds, every day is 1964. They pretend that today’s Military is somehow inundated with white supremacists and yet they cannot provide even an iota of evidence to support this. This is why I urge young people today to avoid Military service at all costs. You do not want to be “led” by any of these clowns. However if you do decide to join go for Spec Ops MOS/Rate. At least they’re not totally broken….yet.

amatuerwrangler | March 21, 2021 at 8:33 pm

“The Pentagon is also weighing whether any additional mechanisms are needed, such as ways for service members to confidentially report potential extremist behavior within their units.”

What a brilliant way to build unit trust and cohesiveness. Wish I’d thought of that almost 50 years ago. Can we expect that units from Company, up, will have specific “Political officers”…. I’m thinking of the guy assigned to Red October to ensure that the captain’s thoughts were pure.

I want all the Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Sailors to be extremists. Extreme in their unflagging devotion to making the world a very dangerous place for Americas enemies, foreign and domestic.

The troops not being partisan is something to encourage and appreciate.

The Pentagon viewing that as a problem to be shatters shows we need a new Pentagon from the ground up.

extremist views and activity — on either side of the political spectrum

Nobody believes that “either side” honestly represents what is happening here.

    henrybowman in reply to randian. | March 22, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    I tried to upvote you as you deserved, but couldn’t.

    MODERATOR: I suspect the “dead thumbs” bug is related to the thumb icons being within the ambit of a blockquote. As an experiment, I tried upvoting other comments that began with blockquotes, and every one of them failed.

I think the left is so concerned about what the service members are thinking because they plan on doing something that could result in a military coup. There have been would be communist revolutions that were thwarted by a country’s military. The one that comes immediately to mind was Chile in the 1970’s.

Blah, blah, blah blah. Let’s cut to the chase: it’s over. Half the nation is mentally gone, permenantly. They will never see anything our way. The upcoming generation is going to be even worse.

Start the discussion for secession. It’s our only hope for a future nation worth living in.

George_Kaplan | March 21, 2021 at 9:28 pm

If the maladministration wants the military to support (left-wing) extremism whilst considering supporting constitutional conservative values and causes courtmartial offences, won’t this gut the military and result in conservatives looking to the militias to protect the country? Seems like Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun – there will be negative consequences.

Big Brother is concerned some of the troops are having impure wrongthink thoughts.

Must be due to the corrupting misinformation, disinformation, and lies Foxnews, Newsmax, and OANN are spewing. Especially from that Tucker guy. Some troops may even have accounts on Parler and Gab, gasp!

Sounds like a job for O’Brien.

Does anybody believe in “anonymous reporting?” I see it all the time in company-wide “surveys” and other attempts to convince employees they can ask questions or comment anonymously or answer survey questions confidentially. No one buys that crap and their responses reflect it. We all know it’s crap.

Same thing with the military. The unit ”Diversity Officer” who will eventually be designated “Political Officer” will encourage members to snitch on their comrades, anonymously of course. Of course, the mere fact that an allegation is made will be enough to effectively end careers, whether the allegations are founded or not. We all know that, protestations to the contrary not withstanding.

Lloyd Austin was recently quoted as saying U.S. forces were ready to fight. I submit that “ready to fight” and “prepared to prevail” are not the same.

It’s amazing and disheartening how quickly this administration has managed to turn what was a world-class fighting force into a banana republic laughing stock.

    Grrr8 American in reply to Idonttweet. | March 21, 2021 at 10:56 pm

    Yes. We’ve just been subjected to a “color revolution” preventing the duly-elected President from assuming office, and installing a CCP puppet regime.

    Across society we’re being subjected to what can only be described as early-stage Maoist cultural revolution tactics.

    So it is predictable that with the military the current junta would be looking to purge folks loyal to America and the Constitution — and so Communist-standard mechanisms like “political officers” and fostering paranoia is/ was entirely predictable (“if I don’t go along my career is ruined and I’ll be dishonorably discharged” / “if I don’t report so-and-so for what they said, and they find out I didn’t report it, my career is ruined and I’ll be dishonorably discharged”).

    The Friendly Grizzly in reply to Idonttweet. | March 22, 2021 at 5:04 am

    My default position on “anonymous ” company surveys is that they were in some way flagged with a concealed identifier. My 1 to 10 answers were always Average. Comment or Remarks boxes left blank.

What they need is an officer in every unit who could keep tabs on what people were talking and saying and thinking. They would be like in charge of political correctness. A right think officer. Or good idea officer. Or, I’m sure we could find the right name for the officer monitoring right thinking. It’s on the tip of my tongue.

Kruschev had that job with the Red Army at Stalingrad. Making sure everyone thought the right thoughts. Not saying I was there, but nobody had a good time at Stalingrad.

    JHogan in reply to Milwaukee. | March 21, 2021 at 10:22 pm

    I’m sure this is on the table. And will be seriously considered as soon as they can come up with a name for them other than commissar. Along with an official world salad explanation Jake Tapper can use when Republicans ‘pounce’ and spread misinformation and disinformation equating them with commissars.

      The Friendly Grizzly in reply to JHogan. | March 22, 2021 at 5:09 am

      They already have a title. “Diversity and Inclusion Officer”.

      If enough shipboard DandIOs “dandy-os”?) get fan-tailed, it may cause some consternation for the higher-ups.

    These Zampolit should be deployed down to the platoon level, carefully selected to hold to both the political views of the current administration and to adequately represent diversity by gender identity, race, and twenty-seven other Social Justice qualifications. They should be given veto authority over all unit orders, as well as the power to remove any officer above or below them on the chain of command at a moment’s notice. I think a force of fifty thousand should be sufficient.

    Yeah, that ought to do it.

The Friendly Grizzly | March 21, 2021 at 10:29 pm

Austin. Quota hire personified.

Next, they’ll court-martial soldiers who voted the wrong way.

Shooting civil war – troops firing at troops – by December 31st.

    DaveGinOly in reply to daniel_ream. | March 22, 2021 at 12:39 am

    This is too often dismissed by people who believe it’s impossible for civilians to stand against a modern military. They don’t consider the possibility that a portion (and possibly a majority portion) of the military will be on the side of the citizens. Obviously, someone in this administration is thinking of this, and this article is about the steps being taken to minimize the effects of the split when it happens.

I should certainly hope many in our military don’t perceive the BLM/Antifa riots as equivalent to the incursion at the Capitol.

When the purpose of a body of people is the restoration of constitutional principles, the preservation of the Republic, and support for a government that respects the law, then that body is not involved in an insurrection and nothing it does is seditious. In this country, sedition and insurrection are not acts against an individual, those in power, or a particular political party. Nor are they acts against de facto governments. Sedition and insurrection are acts against lawful governments and in opposition to rule by the Constitution.

A huge moral gulf exists between the BLM/Antifa riots (meant to disrupt lawful government) and the Capitol incursion (a demonstration supporting the Constitution and the rule of law).

    George_Kaplan in reply to DaveGinOly. | March 22, 2021 at 1:10 am

    There’s doubtless obfuscation between the peaceful rally in Washington DNC attended by was it hundreds of thousands, the mostly peaceful after rally visit to the Capitol by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand – police opening doors and barricades for tourists, and the stupidity and violence committed or incited by a few dozen, including Leftists.

    This contrasts with Antifa and the BLM which are guilty of arson, looting, violence and murder.

    The military should oppose terrorism and support democracy. Under this maladministration democratic activities are illegitimate violence, and left-wing terrorism is democratic expression.

    Is it any wonder Left and Right now fail to communicate?

    The Packetman in reply to DaveGinOly. | March 22, 2021 at 7:10 am

    “I should certainly hope many in our military don’t perceive the BLM/Antifa riots as equivalent to the incursion at the Capitol.”

    I don’t think many do … it terrifies the ruling class that ANY in the military think that.

    Rather, I think most in the military see that Jan 6 was the result of everything occurring over the last year …

This isn’t the military I severed in some 40 years ago. No wonder chiner just made fools of us in Alaska. The capitol so called riot was a orchestrated political theater to advance the leftists/liberal demoCrap plan to destroy our Country’s border, language and culture to make everyone equally miserable with them ruling over the chaos.

Bucky Barkingham | March 22, 2021 at 7:47 am

Sec. Austin wants the troops to get their minds right, meaning Left.

Remember Ashli Babbitt!

How on earth did this clown get confirmed? He is definitely not a George Patton type of military official. He is more of a brainwasher than a Secretary of Defense.

To any sane, rational and morally upright person, the riots and violence committed by the goose-stepping Dhimmi-crats of “Anti-fa” and “Black Lives Matter” were exponentially more serious, more damaging and more dangerous to American society and to our country, than the Capitol Hill incident. Not just in terms of temporal length (almost one year and counting, for the Dhimmi-crat riots, versus a single afternoon, for the Capitol Hill incident), but, in terms of lives lost, businesses destroyed, economic damage, etc. And, let’s not forget that the Dhimmi-crat thugs also desecrated numerous synagogues across America, in a fine imitation of German National Socialists in the 1930’s. Interesting how none of this bothers the Pentagon brass.

DoD can create a new position of “politruk” — a political commissar/officer, installed in every unit and modeled after the ones used by the Soviet Union to keep tabs on the political allegiances/loyalty of the soldiers and officers.

They think the military people are idiots. They’re the ones to get deployed to the riots. And that’s why they asked the questions. Why the aggression for the January 6 episode and nothing for the summer riots that are still occurring. The Diversion and Inclusion officer will soon straighten them out I’m sure. We had EO classes when I was in, this is even worse.

So the Pentagon brass thinks “extremism” in the ranks is a major problem.

Why don’t they think that in every war game involving China we lose is a major problem?

Why don’t they think that not having won a peer-to-peer war since 1945 is a major problem?

How are they going to define the terms extremist and extremism?

What’s the protocol for investigating anonymous reports?

The job of the Pentagon is to plan for and win wars. So, Secretary Austin let’s try and stay focused on job #1.

Voice_of_Reason | March 24, 2021 at 9:22 am

far more people died in BLM and ANTIFA protests than died at the capitol.

far more businesses were destroyed in BLM and ANTIFA protests than were destroyed at the capitol.

far more property damage was incurred in BLM and ANTIFA protests that was incurred at the capitol.

so, Lloyd Austin is inadvertently correct, they are NOT equal!

    Ohio Historian in reply to Voice_of_Reason. | March 27, 2021 at 8:27 pm

    Don’t tell Austin that. The Fibbies and DOJ have spent YEARS trying to pretend that right-wing violence is a predominant problem in the US. This last year has proven that to be hogwash. Fortunately, the Fibbies and DOJ have hogs ready for the wash at the Pentagon.

I wonder how troops view the mob that crashed the Kavanaugh hearings? On capitol hill? In the Senate chambers?

Ohio Historian | March 27, 2021 at 8:25 pm

I think I’d be surprised if the troops saw the two as the same. In one case, all the damage is done after sundown, fire is used extensively, and casualties happen due to flying objects. A group provides cover for the provocateurs. There are convenient pallets of various objects staged in the area. Few are charged.

In the other, all the damage was due to a small group with a larger group that was present but not participating. In this one, even people in the city but not there are being questioned.

But the brass at the Pentagon thinks that the latter is far worse than the former because they think they will be called “racist” if they don’t support the former. Fortunately, the warfighter is smarter than the brass.