Taking it to the extreme
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe expresses an awful lot of outrage toward the Security and its “Intelligence and Assessment Report on Radical Extremism in the United States.” A good chunk of Inhofe’s anger is directed at what he perceives as an insult to our retuning vets who have served honorably in Iraq and Afghanistan. Click here to read his letter to DHS.
The DHS report suggests that disgruntled vets are prime recruiting targets of radical extremists because of their military skills. Of course extremists would want to recruit our vets. How successful they’ll be remains to be seen.
As a veteran myself, I do not take offense at DHS acknowledging that some disillusioned vets may be vulnerable to the recruiting efforts of radical extremists. Here’s why:
The military is way more than a job. For many, it becomes an identity. It’s a source of income, of stature, of camaraderie. The military is its own distinct culture, one with strong values, altruistic goals and a life-and-death trust level. Detaching from the military with a disillusioned, disgruntled mindset must be a lonely feeling. Gone are a rock-solid support system and all the safety nets the military provides.
Yes, leaving the military on bad terns must be a jarring blow indeed.
So is it really such a stretch to see where someone who unhappily leaves the military – who loses the structure and leadership and peer-pressure the military provides – might adopt the extreme views of others with a new goal in mind?
Timothy McVeigh filled his void with such views. So did his cohort, Terry Nichols – and, by the way, those two met and served together in the Army.
I appreciate Sen. Inhofe’s concern over sullying the reputations of veterans. But let’s not bury our head in the sand in the name of honoring the military.
Perhaps if we’d been less shocked when two Army veterans paired up to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, our history would be much different.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Thanks for pointing out the McVeigh/Nichols Army connection and other factors. Inhofe should be ashamed of himself for not having a full understanding of McVeigh's military mindset about wanting to "take action," not talk, over his twisted perception of America and our federal government. Similar kinds of distortions and lies are being spread today with as much fervor.
Homeland Security is doing its job — not hiding the truth and information from the public that pays for its work. We have too many politicians like Inhofe who will block the public's right to know because the information is politically incorrect for them. Thank God we've got media that fight for the public's rights..