In an effort to root out extremism within the nation’s military ranks, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed a memo on Friday that directed commanding officers and supervisors to hold a one-day stand down on the issue.
The Department of Defense announced in a news release on Friday that Austin had formally signed the memo, which will require commanding officers and supervisors at all levels to dedicate one day in the next two months to leading discussions centering on “the importance of our oath of office; a description of impermissible behaviors; and procedures for reporting suspected, or actual, extremist behaviors.”
The single-day stand-down order comes after revelations that some current service members and veterans had been arrested for their involvement in the deadly riot on the U.S. Capitol last month.
“We will not tolerate actions that go against the fundamental principles of the oath we share, including actions associated with extremist or dissident ideologies,” the memo said. “Service members, DoD civilian employees, and all those who support our mission, deserve an environment free of discrimination, hate, and harassment. It is incumbent upon each of us to ensure that actions associated with these corrosive behaviors are prevented.”
NPR pointed out that two weeks after the Capitol insurrection, roughly a dozen National Guard troops were dismissed from inauguration duties — at least two of whom for alleged links to extremism.
The stand-down order was first announced by the Pentagon on Wednesday.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at that time that a key reason for the action was that “we don’t know the full breadth and depth” of links between extremism and military service members.
President Joe Biden during the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday had also called for a confrontation of the “political extremism” that played a part in the Capitol riot.
Austin’s Friday memo appeared to acknowledge that the stand-down was just the first step in a “concerted effort to better educate ourselves and our people about the scope of this problem and to develop sustainable ways to eliminate the corrosive effects that extremist ideology and conduct have on the workforce.”
A noble idea, but I’m not sure a one-day session is going to cure the cancer that exists in an unfortunate percentage of our military personnel.
lol this is performative ass covering
Step one in fixing a problem is acknowledging that you have a problem. Seems Austin is past step one.
Austin is a low key MVP of cabinet officials. In a short time, he has fired all the Trumper appointees to defense policy boards, is implementing the restoration of transgender folks’ ability to serve in the military, has dispatched up to 1000+ military personnel to support federal vaccination sites, is restoring relations with our NATO allies, and has embarked on this initiative to clean the military out of MAGA types. And some folks on this site thought the waiver was a bridge too far…
As opposed to the encouragement of extremism in the last four years, this looks like a good start that can be evaluated and refined.