We’ve reported on the conservative anger over this Department of Homeland Security report (pdf). Note that the reaction hasn’t just been unnecessarily partisan (the report wasn’t commissioned by President Obama, and was written under the auspices of a Bush appointee), it has also been curiously sensitive. The report, after all, isn’t about the conservative movement in any way, but rather about the potentially growing ranks of radical right wing groups.
In response, conservatives have largely ignored the true origins of the report, and, enabled by the mainstream media, continue to direct their outrage at the new administration. But on the second point–the curious sensitivity–they’ve countered that their real anger has more to do with the fact that the DHS assessment suggests that veterans are particularly susceptible to the allure (whatever it is) of such groups when they return from service.
Well, lest those conservatives continue to think that the “vets are susceptible to fringe groups” trope is a fodder for Democratic partisans, here’s a 2007 FBI report (pdf) on “White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11” which says, in part, that “[a]lthough individuals with military backgrounds constitute a small percentage of white supremacist extremists, they frequently occupy leadership roles within extremist groups and their involvement has the potential to reinvigorate an extremist movement suffering from loss of leadership and in-fighting during the post-9/11 period.”
