{"id":65960,"date":"2021-03-19T06:55:54","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T12:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=65960"},"modified":"2021-03-19T06:57:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T12:57:30","slug":"65960","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=65960","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ll take Military Guilt Sessions Not Going As Planned<\/em> for $500, Alex.<\/p>\n

Remember all those ‘mostly peaceful’ ‘racial injustice protests<\/del>‘ riots<\/em><\/strong>, with all the looting, burning and murders? Yeah, those.<\/p>\n

\n

Some US troops view Capitol riots, racial protests equally, worrying Pentagon leaders.<\/a><\/p>\n

During military training sessions to address extremism in the ranks, some service members have challenged why the Pentagon is not treating the violence during racial injustice protests last summer as equal to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n

That the two events are viewed as equivalent by some troops has caught the Pentagon\u2019s attention in its effort to educate service members that extremist views and activity \u2014 on either side of the political spectrum \u2014 go against the oath they took when they joined the military, the top enlisted leader told reporters on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is coming from every echelon that we\u2019re talking to,\u201d said Ram\u00f3n Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez, the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. \u201cSome people may think that, \u2018all right, so the events of 6 January happened. How come you\u2019re not looking at the situation that was going on in Seattle prior to that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The military has started a Defense Department-wide effort to educate service members on what constitutes extremist behavior and why it is impermissible in the armed forces.<\/p>\n

It started with stand downs, or day-long training and discussion sessions, ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. All of those stand downs must be completed by April 1.<\/p>\n

Based on the feedback from those sessions, \u201cI am concerned about the way that some people are looking at the current environment, and what they are thinking they can do and act upon based on their personal beliefs,\u201d Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n

After the stand downs are completed there will be follow-up training and outreach.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon is also weighing whether any additional mechanisms are needed, such as ways for service members to confidentially report potential extremist behavior within their units. Similar efforts for officially reporting sexual harassment have struggled over the years to gain the confidence of the troops, fearing retaliation, although after a concerted push by the Defense Department those reporting numbers have started to rise.<\/p>\n

In the Jan. 6 attack, far-right rioters, including some former and current members of the U.S. military, violently breached the Capitol in an effort to overturn the presidential election that President Donald Trump lost. Five people died as a result of the attack, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer.<\/p>\n

When questions arose of why last summer\u2019s racial injustice protests didn\u2019t trigger a similar review of extremist views, tough conversations have followed, \u201cto make sure that military members understand the difference between Seattle and Washington, D.C.,\u201d Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are very, very tough conversations to have with people because sometimes they\u2019re emotional about the subject,\u201d Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot confuse a First Amendment grievance because of social injustice organization and some of the criminals that latched on to go ahead and loot, destroy and commit other crimes. There\u2019s two clear, distinct groups right there,\u201d Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez said, referring to the difference between peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters and looters who disrupted some of those events.<\/p>\n

The looting has been used by some television commentators to convince viewers that the protests were equivalent to the Capitol attacks and that message has left a mark on some of the younger forces, Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez said.<\/p>\n

In discussing what messages the troops are getting, Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez was delicate in his words. But he said he reminds them all that their oath defends free speech, and he encourages the younger service members to look into issues beyond what they see on TV.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the younger troops take what they see on TV as, \u201cOK so that\u2019s what this means,\u201d Col\u00f3n-L\u00f3pez said. \u201cWe have to educate them, no, that\u2019s not what that meant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ll take Military Guilt Sessions Not Going As Planned for $500, Alex. Remember all those ‘mostly peaceful’ ‘racial injustice protests‘ riots, with all the looting, burning and murders? Yeah, those. Some US troops view Capitol riots, racial protests equally, worrying Pentagon leaders. During military training sessions to address extremism in the ranks, some service members … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65960"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65964,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65960\/revisions\/65964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}