“I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I’ve served over there and seen how they live, They’re just a backward people. Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I’m concerned. Their customs, everything to do with the Middle East, is just repugnant to me.”says Forrest Fogarty. He's an Iraq War veteran and a lifelong Nazi. Despite being covered in Racist and Nazi tattoos and despite having been expelled from High School for overt and unrepentant racism; despite his public support for ridding the US and Europe of non-white races, despite the fact that regulations forbid it, the US military has trained him in weapons and tactics he hopes one day to use in a race war.
Writing in Salon.com, Matt Kennard tells us in Neo-Nazis are in the Army Now that Fogarty left the US Army in 2005 with an honorable discharge and was asked to re-enlist. He is apparently not a unique case and a DHS report outlines how as the military has had to scrape the bottom of the recruitment barrel, issuing waivers for criminal behavior, militant extremist groups have benefitted from the increased hate and frustration - and the government's willingness to train current and potential hate-group members.
It's become very difficult for Americans to criticize the military and the image of our "warrior" heroes fighting for freedom is a sacred icon, as it often becomes when our government has to hide and distract from the lies and distortions and cover-ups behind an unneccesary and probably illegal war, but it seems to me that another of the victims of George Bush's War, along with the Iraqi people, is our military and its reputation. It's bad enough that we've abused their patriotism and dedication, left too many wounded by the side of the road without adequate care and benefits, but have we trained and disciplined another generation of domestic terrorists to carry out a racist, hate-based mission?
The Southern Poverty Law Center has been talking about this for ages. It's astonishing that it's still going on.
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when we stretch our military so thin that all of the non-militants are used up.
We need to get this under control or a lot of bad things are going to happen.
To say the least. It doesn't help that our military has become sort of seminary either, with soldiers being harassed and discriminated against if they don't profess the right sort of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised. Some years ago, there was a scandal at the U.S Air Force Academy involving evangelical upperclassmen who were harassing younger cadets with "If you don't convert to our way, you will be condemned to Hell." There was outright discrimination against Jewish cadets.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a vignette surrounding the story about Pat Tillman, the soldier who gave up a lucrative pro football contract to join the military, the same Pat Tillman killed by "friendly fire."
When the Tillman family refused to accept the initial findings of the investigation into their son's death, one general reportedly said to the Tillmans that they (the family) were unable to make peace with their loss on account of their atheism.
A point of conjecture: authoritarian/social dominator personality types seem naturally drawn to careers where they can assert themselves ... like the clergy, politics, civilian police, and the military.
Of course, neo-nazis in the military should raise everyone's alarm. Once returned to civilian life, nut jobs trained in bomb-making represent a clear and present danger.
It reminds me of a joke in the Simpsons where newsman Kent Brockman, as part of an Eye On Springfield report, begins the show by saying, "Tonight on Eye on Springfield: just miles from your doorstep, hundreds of men are given weapons and trained to kill. The government calls it the army, but a more alarmist name would be the kill-bot factory!"
ReplyDeleteOur army has turned into a kill-bot factory.
Of course in real life it's not very funny, but sometimes I think if I don't laugh I'll go insane.
Bravo! Yes, our military is a casualty of the Bush Doctrine. Iraq has done more damage to our hard power than Americans realize.
ReplyDeleteAbout eleven years ago, the right was all a-twitter because soldiers training in the Mojave Desert were required to keep an eye out for endangered tortoises on the trails at Fort Irwin. This was supposed to be a horrible injury to our "readiness." By 2004, the US Army was training soldiers to keep an eye out for dangerous IEDs on the roads of Baghdad. I found this a terrific irony.
One more little fact: until George W. Bush was President, this kind of person would never have been let into the military. Bush's inability to get rational people to volunteer to fight his war in Iraq resulted in a massive degradation in enlistment standards, resulting in many neo-Nazis being able to enlist.
ReplyDeleteTalk about adding insult to injury.
What a disgrace to all the honorable men and women who served their country proudly and with great integrity.
ReplyDeleteI'm just too damned slow... I read this at Alternet this morning, and thought I finally... FINALLY had something to good enough to post here. (Those who get the e-mails saw I actually did post it, even...)
ReplyDeleteSo great post there, Captain... Definitely a story worth reading and spreading... [he says, through gritted teeth]
(For those who didn't get the e-mailed post, my take appears @ Wingnuts & Moonbats: "I Hate Arabs More Than Anybody": Desperate Army Recruits Neo-Nazis
Off to find some other good story to post here, so that I'm not just another pretty name on the masthead...