Rollback of DOD anti-extremism efforts coming in 2025, experts predict
By Nikki Wentling
Dec 26, 2024, 09:00 AM
An armed supporter of President Donald Trump speaks casually with a Washington State Patrol trooper during a rally, Jan. 10, 2021, at the Capitol in Olympia, Washington. Extremism prevention experts predict a rollback of anti-extremism efforts in 2025. (Ted S. Warren/AP)
Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, where about 15% of the rioters were veterans or service members, the Pentagon launched an effort to root out extremism from the ranks and prevent anyone with a bent toward political violence from joining the military.
After the past four years, experts in extremism prevention deemed those efforts incremental at best and perfunctory at worst. Political opposition “very much slowed things down,” said Kate Bitz, a senior organizer at the Western States Center, and lawmakers from both parties protested there was too much “gray area” in new anti-extremism policies.
But even the piecemeal progress since 2021 is more than can be expected out of Pentagon leadership in 2025, said Bitz, as well as leaders from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and Human Rights First.
President Donald Trump’s administration will “take the military back to the days when extremism in its entirety was ignored,” said Wendy Via, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.
https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/extremism-disinformation/2024/12/26/rollback-of-dod-anti-extremism-efforts-coming-in-2025-experts-predict/
