Report Finds Biden Admin’s Concerns of ‘Extremism’ in Military Are Unfounded
2nd January 2024
A report the Department of Defense commissioned to study extremism in the United States military found that there is little evidence it’s a disproportionate problem among service members, findings that throw cold water on Biden administration officials’ claims of significant radicalism within the military.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin commissioned the report, which the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) released last month, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot after it was reported that a number of participants had military records. The institute conducted its research from June 2021 through June 2022.
“IDA’s review found no evidence that the number of violent extremists in the military is disproportionate to the number of violent extremists in the United States as a whole,” the institute wrote in the report’s executive summary, “although there is some indication that the rate of participation by former service members is slightly higher and may be growing. IDA also found no evidence of violent extremist behavior by DOD civilians.”