Dallas Morning News Editorial

A Few Bad Men ? : Extremism has no place in the military
07:23 AM CDT on Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The military adopted a zero-tolerance program toward hate groups a decade ago after soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina murdered a black couple in a racially motivated attack.
Now the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, claims that a large number of racial extremists have enlisted in the military to gain weapons skills. It says recruiting officers are under intense pressure to meet enlistment quotas, commanders are reluctant to remove soldiers from the ranks, and hate groups are clandestinely encouraging extremists to hide their sympathies. There are stories of hate and gang graffiti in Baghdad, according to the center.
These are serious charges and, if accurate, dangerous cracks in the zero-tolerance policy under which the Pentagon says all branches of the armed services operate. The Army denies that recruiters have compromised standards that might allow gang members, extremists and other unsuitable recruits to enlist and insists it doesn't see evidence of an increasing problem.
The Pentagon may be right. But roll back to the mid-1990s, when the military also thought it didn't have a problem. Surveys after the Fort Bragg tragedy indicated that between 1 percent and 3 percent of soldiers had contact with a hate group member and that many soldiers were confused about the Army's policies and about what groups were considered extremist. That was enough to get the military's attention.
Our guess is that the military is not swarming with hate group sympathizers. Nonetheless, an investigation is warranted to determine the facts. Soldiers who have ties to hate groups should be punished and similar potential recruits turned away. Long term, the threat is not only to the military, but also to society, when these people take off the uniform for the final time.
The military preaches esprit de corps and unconditional trust between comrades. Colin Powell has spoken fondly of the military as a meritocracy, where the uniform trumps race and background. Such a proud and noble tradition mustn't be stained.
No one knows what is in another person's heart. But, at the least, the military must know the measure of the people in its uniforms.

source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-hate_0712edi.ART.State.Edition1.241587b.html