Dec 21, 2021: The Pentagon has stopped short of banning military members from joining listed extremist groups and has explicitly refused to say whether refusing to see President Joe Biden as a legitimate US leader violates policy.

Like American society, the US military is under political pressure after years of divisive politics. A small minority of military service members have refused orders to get vaccinated, after that issue became politicised, and some participated in the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol by supporters of then-president Donald Trump.

Warning that extremism in the ranks is increasing, Pentagon officials issue detailed new rules prohibiting service members from actively engaging in extremist activities.

According to a report by the Washington Post, US troops have been revealed to be involved in extremist activities.

According to a Pentagon report, about 100 personnel took part in the activities of the banned extremists, however, it was not clear what kind of activities they were involved in. But they also referred to the advocacy of overthrowing the government or ‘domestic terrorism’.

To lend perspective, there were also 70 allegations of racially motivated violent extremist activity and 73 allegations of anti-government or anti-authority extremism.

Consequent to the January 6 capitol riots, the Biden administration, which took office on January 20, spent much of the year working to clarify its definition of extremism and what kinds of military participation in an extremist activity to explicitly prohibit, unveiling the results on Monday.

As per the new definition, extremism includes everything from prohibiting “liking” extremist content on social media to fundraising or demonstrating for an extremist organisation.

Despite the new policy change, the Pentagon still stopped short of prohibiting membership in any group, from the Proud Boys to the Oath Keepers and the Ku Klux Klan, and avoided weighing in on specific scenarios, like a soldier’s view of the legitimacy of Biden as president.

Explaining their stance, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said, “If we got into coming up with a list of extremist groups, it would be only probably as good as the day we published it because these groups change.”

Meanwhile US defence officials also say that the restrictions announced on Monday meant that meaningful, active participation in any such group would be impossible.

Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the military oversight committee in the House of Representatives, praised the updated policy.

The announcement by the Pentagon came just weeks after the Pentagon’s Inspector General cited 294 allegations of extremist activity by US service members, including 10 allegations of trespassing at the US Capitol on January 6 and 102 allegations of participation in domestic extremist violence.

In its report on extremism, the Pentagon said that available data generally shows that cases of prohibited extremist activity among servicemembers were rare. Kirby said officials had found about 100 cases in total, but acknowledged the Pentagon needed to do a better job collecting data.

Stay tuned to BaaghiTV for latest news and Updates!