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"How long before the next tragedy?" Matt Kennard speaks with John Hockenberry of The Takeaway

Jessica Turner 9 August 2012

Matt Kennard, author of Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members, and Criminals to Fight the War on Terror was a guest on Thursday's The Takeaway, discussing his research on the crossover between the US army and hate groups, in the wake of last Sunday's massacre at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin.
 


In the interview, Kennard set alleged shooter Wade Michael Page's experience in the military and what we've come to learn of his neo-Nazi affiliations in context.

As Kennard explained:

In my research, basically, white supremacists and neo-Nazi activists see the military as a way to gain military training courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer, and to bring back to the U.S. and start a domestic race war ... It really does call into question the whole pretext of the War on Terror if the U.S. military, which we were told was trying to spread freedom and democracy in the Middle East, was sending these people that were basically wanting to arm themselves to start a domestic war in the United States, which Page shows can end up in some of the most horrendous massacres that the U.S. has seen ... There are many ways to detect white supremacist soldiers if the will is there. During the War on Terror, the will wasn't there. In terms of future attacks in the United States, it might already be too late because they've spent 10 years training some of the most violent people in the United States. That's the scary thing.

Silenced Department of Defense internal investigative reports, impunity toward racist extremists, hate-groups operating within the military without fear of reprisal, a policy on "extremism" originally written to root out anti-war resisters post-Vietnam: the revelations post-Oak Creek show gross negligence and misguided policy all the way up the Department of Defense chain of command. 

Visit The Takeaway to listen to the segment in full.

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