Rooting out political extremism in military strengthens the nation

The U.S. Navy took an important step last week when it extended its boot camp by two weeks, with the extra time being devoted to such issues as extremism, sexual assault and hazing, and suicide prevention.

In expanding its enlisted basic training period from eight to 10 weeks, the Navy said its goal was to provide more leadership mentoring, life skills coaching and focus on standards of professional and personal behavior.

“We are telling our recruits, ‘Here are our behaviors of a 21st-century sailor … all the things we expect you to do, and here’s how we expect you to behave and act,’ ” Rear Adm. Jennifer Couture told Stars and Stripes. “It is treating people with respect, holding people accountable for their behaviors and peer-to-peer accountability.”

This additional training is important both for the recruits and for the citizens they’re defending, as reducing bad behavior promises to improve the Navy’s esprit de corps and in turn make it a more cohesive and capable fighting force.

The focus on extremism is particularly meaningful in this regard. Americans should not have to wonder whether our troops are committed to protecting the nation’s democracy versus supporting some anti-government group or a violent white nationalist organization like the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.

Extremism has no place in the U.S. military. Citizens need to be confident that the military is nonpartisan and completely apolitical — it’s a bedrock value in our country and one of the things that distinguishes us from repressive regimes.

To its credit, the Defense Department unveiled new guidelines last month to address extremism in the ranks, such as updating its screening procedures of recruits and adopting social media usage policies in which enlistees can be disciplined for liking and reposting content related to white nationalism and extremism. Officials also are exploring how to educate troops who are leaving the service on how to avoid being recruited into extremist organizations.

This is a good start, as is the Navy’s boot-camp expansion. But much more similar action is needed.

An Associated Press analysis last month revealed significant shortcomings in military policies to screen out extremists or root them out in the ranks and expel them from service.

For instance, the AP found that while the military prohibits personnel from actively participating in groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Boogaloo Bois, Oath Keepers, etc., it doesn’t expressly ban enlistees from belonging to those groups.

In addition, the AP showed that the military’s judicial system includes no category for hate crimes, unlike at least 46 states and the federal government. Therefore, while assaults and other crimes are punished, it’s difficult to determine how many of those are bias-motivated.

Another concern involves the near-total discretion of commanders to handle behavioral issues, which experts say has resulted in capricious and uneven enforcement of rules and laws, with some commanders imposing zero-tolerance policies and others being lenient. In this environment, it’s entirely possible that hate crimes are going unreported and/or unpunished.

But after years of paying lip service to extremism, the military is at least acknowledging that it is a serious issue and is putting policies and procedures in place to address it. Commendably, in developing these initiatives, the Defense officials consulted civil rights organizations, academics and others who have been critical of its response to extremism in decades past.

Those critics are watching the military carefully to see how it will implement its new guidelines and the extent to which it will hold its command staff accountable for dealing with extremism.

But the recent steps taken by the Navy and the Defense Department at large are a long-awaited sign of progress.