Aryan Nation

As if the Pentagon didn’t have enough worries in regards to how it’s going to maintain troop levels over a long period due to the demands of the Iraqi and Afghan Wars, while still maintaining the capabilities to respond to other needs, it seems that they’ve been force fed an extra helping of anxieties.

First, there are ever growing reports of American troop involvement in atrocous activities such as reported in the town of Haditha, where a number of civilians were outright murdered, execution style, by American troops. In addition to this, a fourteen year old Iraqi girl was raped, and then executed. Her father, mother, and five year old sister were also murdered in what seemed to be a planned assault.

Then, it came out that a ot of these activities were covered up as reports went up the chain of command.

In addition to the problems in attracting and retraining recruits, Pentagon bureaucrcy has been responsible for one soldier being called back into active duty, who was supposed to be relieved from this obligation as of 2001. Be that as it may, he went, asumming the call was correct, served some time on a bomb disposal unit, and though he was lucky to make it home alive once the mistake was caught, he now suffers from bad knees and diabetes. This soldier from Ohio is now looking for an attorney in an effort to receive the full retirement and health benefits to which he feels he is now entitled.

The reson for the snafu? He was listed on two different military documents, one of which had him listed as a soldier, the other one-the relevant one which he knew nothing about- which identified him as a captain.

Now it turns out an appreciable number of enlisted personnel are members of various white supremacist organizations, or “Aryans”.

Well, maybe. I have my share of skepticism about this, though it has been reported that various forms of white supremacist graffitti has turned up on public buildings in Iraq. The supposed problem with this is not only the problems it can cause with Iraqi civilian/American military relations, which of course are not that good to begin with –let’s just say they are currently strained, at best-but the future implications. The fear is due to the prospect that these Aryan soldiers might learn combat techniques and weapons skills which they can then use to train other white supremacists, creating a future potential domestic terrorist problem.

Of course, it could also be that they are looking for potential scapegoats for incidents such as Haditha, scapegoats that could be portrayed as outside the mainstream of American opinion as far as relations with Islam and Muslims go. If true, they are due to run into a slight roadblock. Aryans, who prefer these days to call themselves white racialists, are if not in the majority against the Iraqi War, are at least divided concerning it, and to a great extent blame the Israeli lobbyists such as AIPAC, and their political supporters in Congress, and for that matter Bush, for promoting this war, which they feel is unjustified.

Therefore, while there might be a small degree of truth as to this Aryan infiltration of American armed services, and the potential problems this might cause,concerned parties would be well advised to do a little fact checking before they try to make too big a mountain out of this molehill.