The Pentagon announced Monday, December 20, 2021, that a hundred American soldiers had taken part in a form of “prohibited extremist activity” in 2021.
The report published by the Pentagon was ordered by the Defense Ministry in February 2020, after the revelation of the participation of dozens of former soldiers in the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6. During this evening, thousands of supporters of Donald Trump had rushed to Congress to prevent the American elected officials from certifying the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election.
Lloyd Austin, Minister of Defense, said, “The overwhelming majority of the men and women in the Department of Defense serve this country with honor and integrity. (…) They respect the oath they have taken to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. ”
Soldiers on active and reserve service
However, said the minister, “we believe that only a very small number of people violate this oath by taking part in extremist activity.” This would be a very slight minority, “about 100” soldiers belonging to active service or to the reserve. This minority is said to have engaged in prohibited extremist activities.
Lloyd Austin did not specify the nature of these prohibited activities but cited as an example the fact of advocating the overthrow of the government or the use of domestic terrorism.
The ministry advocates increased training for the military on what constitutes prohibited extremist activity. A training which will pass by “instructions on social networks, on what is authorized or not.”
The US military had in its ranks in 2020-2021, more than 2.1 million active military and reservists.