Phil Stewart, Idrees A. Ali

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The Pentagon resisted the temptation to create a list of terrorist groups to which military personnel cannot belong. It also declined to state explicitly whether rejecting President Joe Biden’s legitimacy as America’s leader violated policy.

American society and the U.S. army are under strain due to years of political division. A few military servicemen have declined to get vaccines after the topic became politicized. Others were involved in the January 6th riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol.

The Biden administration took over on January 20 and spent much of the following year clarifying its definition of extremism. It also worked to define what types of military involvement in extremist activities it would prohibit. They released the results Monday.

This new definition covers everything, from the prohibition of “liking” extremist material on social media to funding or demonstrations for extremist organizations. Local commanders could decide to punish anyone found guilty.

However, the Pentagon didn’t prohibit any membership from any group, such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, or the Ku Klux Klan. They also avoided discussing specific situations, such as a soldier’s opinion on the legitimacy and validity of Biden becoming president.

Trump falsely claims that his 2020 loss to the Democrat was due to widespread voter fraud.

John Kirby (NYSE) stated at a press conference that “If we were to create a list extremist groups it would probably be as good as when we publish it.”

Officials from the U.S. defence said that participation meaningful and active in any group like this would not be possible due to Monday’s announcement.

Adam Smith, the House’s top Democrat, praised the new policy.

In a tweet, he stated that “protecting our servicemembers from the threat violent extremism danger is far too important fo partisan misinformation.”

This announcement by the Pentagon came only weeks after 294 U.S. Servicemembers were cited by the Pentagon’s InspectorGeneral for extremist activities, 10 of which were trespassing on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, and 102 of involvement in domestic violence.

There were 70 claims of violent extremist activities motivated by racism and 73 accusations of anti-government extremism.

‘INCONSISTENT TRACKING’

The Defense Department failed to maintain a consistent and uniform data tracking system, according to the Inspector General.

It stated that “until the DoD creates a DoD-wide policy to track and report allegations of prohibited activity, there will be inconsistent tracking…and difficulty validating accuracy of data.”

In its report on extremism the Pentagon stated that data shows that there are very few cases of servicemembers engaging in prohibited extremist activities. Kirby stated that officials found approximately 100 cases, though the Pentagon must do better at collecting information.

The new U.S. policy was explained by U.S. Defense officials. It would use existing tools to identify terrorist threats, and spy in the ranks, to help eliminate extremist activities.

The timeline and goals of this new policy are not clear, as well as when U.S. soldiers might be punished for their inappropriate use of social networks.

Officials stated that they didn’t plan to monitor Twitter (NYSE) or Facebook (NASDAQ), and other social media websites. This raises questions as to whether this new policy is a significant departure from the existing screening U.S. military personnel at crucial moments of their career, such as recruitment.

Kirby stressed the fact that the goal is not to ban political activity by U.S. Servicemembers. This would be hard to accomplish when Reserve Forces members, for instance, also include government officials.

Kirby explained that this is not about political leanings and partisan inclinations, but rather about activity.