- A brand new documentary, “Against All Enemies,” explores the hyperlink between navy veterans and extremism.
- Producer Ken Harbaugh informed Insider veterans on the lookout for goal are vulnerable to radicalization.
- Groups just like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters try and recruit veterans.
Of the greater than 1,000 individuals who had been charged with against the law for his or her participation within the January 6 assault on the Capitol, practically 1 in 5 was a US navy veteran.
While leaders of extremist teams just like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers had been in the end convicted for seditious conspiracy for his or her deliberate makes an attempt to breach the Capitol, critics argue their affect on navy veterans — and the next impression on society — has not but been totally realized because of the adoption of their radical ideology by mainstream Republican politicians.
“Against All Enemies,” a documentary that explores the danger of veterans being radicalized by extremist teams, was featured at this 12 months’s Tribeca Film Festival, incomes glowing evaluations from critics. Variety referred to as the documentary “a grim diagnosis of a fast-spreading cancer,” that “may provide much less reassurance than cause for alarm, but its wakeup call is certainly worth heeding.”
Ken Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot, cofounder of Team Rubicon, and producer of the brand new documentary, spoke with Insider about why being conscious of the issue is simply step one towards an answer. “Against All Enemies” could have its theatrical launch in early 2024.
Tell me about how “Against All Enemies” took place as a challenge and the highway it took you down.
I’m a navy vet and spent plenty of my time after the service attempting to determine methods to productively have interaction veterans making that transition from navy to civilian life by means of my work co-founding Team Rubicon, an NGO that mobilizes veterans to assist in catastrophe response. And on January 6, I simply recall stopping the automotive within the driveway and listening in horror to the protection because it performed out, and within the days afterward, realizing what number of of my brothers-in-arms had been concerned. The numbers do recommend that veterans had been disproportionately represented, however the actual knowledge level that I feel is misplaced in all of that noise is why veterans are so particularly focused for recruitment by teams just like the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Proud Boys.
Why are veterans focused as recruits for this sort of radical ideology?
It’s as a result of, in navy communicate, they act as drive multipliers. The identical cause that Fortune 500 firms and elite nonprofits and Ivy League applications attempt to recruit veterans is why the Oath Keepers attempt to recruit them: as a result of once they set their sights on a mission, they go after it. They know methods to manage; they know methods to plan and lead. And that’s nice to have if GE or Amazon can recruit them. But it’s extremely harmful if the place they wind up is with the Proud Boys.
Can you inform me why the trail towards the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or the Three Percenters may be a gorgeous one for a veteran?
That’s not mysterious. People be a part of the navy for quite a lot of causes, however a common expertise of being within the navy is the sensation of camaraderie, a way of goal and mission. The want for it would not disappear together with the uniform, and folks look to recapture that in different methods. I keep in mind my very own expertise with that, actually on the stroke of a pen once I signed the shape that received me out of the navy after 9 years; right away, my identification was gone. I had been a Navy pilot. That’s who I was. That’s how I thought of myself. And I used to be fortunate. I had a household to assist me, I had a fairly clear pathway into civilian life, and even then, I had this disaster of identification. And then you consider all of the 20-somethings who’re experiencing this and who’ve gone by means of years of fight, and it’s a actual disaster.
What patterns do you see within the course that issues are going for veterans within the wake of pulling out of Afghanistan?
There’s quite a lot of overlapping patterns, there are good patterns and unhealthy ones. On the great aspect, there are a number of organizations which have stepped up and tried to fill this void, like Team Rubicon. On the opposite aspect, you’ve got teams just like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, and Three Percenters who’ve additionally stepped into this void, and they’re choosing off veterans who’re susceptible to the form of misinformation that’s simply so ubiquitous now. These misinformation echo chambers can drag folks down these rabbit holes and into these communities which are extremely poisonous and damaging and lead nowhere good. In the aftermath of each American navy misadventure, membership in extremist organizations spikes. We noticed it after World War I with the resurgence of the KKK, we noticed it after Korea and Vietnam. What we do not know as a society is what occurs to that phenomenon after the longest wars in American historical past: Iraq and Afghanistan. We do know the reply is nothing good. But I feel we’re starting to see among the fruits of that.
Are there commonalities within the ideology amongst extremist teams recruiting on-line within the methods they entice veterans for membership?
Well, I feel the start line is usually a grievance narrative. A sense of disenchantment or lack of neighborhood or anger on the authorities. And a few of that anger is solely acceptable, however that is usually the beginning of it, and that anger and disenchantment might be amped up in a few of these chat rooms that inform you that your issues are the fault of George Soros — or no matter their chosen code phrase is. And these are gateways into the deeper pits which are simply full of racism and antisemitism. Often it would not begin that method. It begins with, “Hey, why don’t you join this group that wants to take care of you, wants to restore that sense of brotherhood and camaraderie.” And the deeper you get into it, the more severe it will get.
From your perspective, what does the anti-democracy aspect stand to achieve from persevering with to push this this narrative to veterans?
I feel there are plenty of particular person motivations, and it’s a must to have a look at every of them to get an actual understanding. Mike Flynn’s motivations are most likely completely different than somebody like Marjorie Taylor Greene’s. I feel the previous realizes that his greatest probability of avoiding actual jail time is continuous to advance the Big Lie in hopes of animating his base and getting Trump reelected. But the actual tragedy for me is that lots of the foot troopers of this motion, the folks you noticed charging the barricades on January 6, really imagine within the trigger. They really suppose they’re on the precise aspect of the Constitution. And it is as a result of folks like Josh Hawley, who was at Yale Law School on the identical time I used to be, and JD Vance, who was there barely earlier than me, carry on feeding them these lies that they know are lies. And these are the actual villains in my e-book.
What is the importance of January 6 on this dialog?
I imply, you can’t do a movie about extremism on this nation and the way in which veterans are drawn to it with out speaking about January 6, however the vital level we make is that January 6 wasn’t some crescendo of violence. It was a dry run. And plenty of the occasions once I see a few of these prosecutions — which has to occur, we now have to carry folks accountable — it makes me marvel about all of the individuals who aren’t being rounded up. And there is a footnote to that, which I feel is the scariest side of all of this, which is that the actual provocateurs, the instigators, could by no means be held accountable as a result of they maintain senior positions in a serious American political get together. You have to return to one of many later iterations of the KKK within the ’20s within the Deep South to seek out an period in American politics the place a violent insurrectionist motion captured a serious political get together. And that led to simply generations of terror domestically, however there’s the potential for that nationally if a violent motion can co-opt sufficient of a serious American political get together.
Is one thing that you just’re involved about out of your vantage level?
Everyone needs to be. I imply, how a lot clearer of a sign are you able to get? A significant get together is being co-opted by terrorists and the chief of that get together is telling the members of that terrorist motion to face again and stand by in case he isn’t reelected. Proud Boys had been informed on a presidential debate stage to face again and stand by. This is a corporation that is been declared a terrorist outfit by Canada, our closest ally, and the President of the United States informed them to face by. Add to that all the different indicators we’re getting from senior influencers and folks with precise elected positions throughout the Republican Party, calling the January 6 rioters political prisoners. You have folks like Sarah Palin warning about civil warfare. Mike Huckabee simply mentioned if Trump is denied one other win, the following election just isn’t going to be determined on the poll field, it will likely be determined by bullets. You have Mike Flynn saying, we want a coup on this nation like that they had in Myanmar. This just isn’t me paraphrasing or exaggerating. These are clarion requires violence coming from senior figures on the precise, influential figures, mainstream figures. These aren’t fringe characters; they’re consultant of the mainstream, and that is scary.
How do you fight that poisonous rhetoric and the mentality of political persecution that additional entrenches folks into that ideology?
Well, it is determined by who I’m speaking to. When attempting to counter the deep state paranoia, or speaking to conspiracy theorists, there’s nothing you are able to do or say as a result of any proof you present is simply proof of an excellent deeper conspiracy. Some persons are unreachable. There is not a center floor while you’re speaking about autocracy and democracy; there is not a midway level. It’s like arguing with flat earthers. The reality is not someplace between a spherical earth and a flat earth. When you have a look at January 6, I feel the one reply to folks like Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde, who mentioned it was only a “normal tourist visit” is: You are mendacity. You are a vet. You know higher. You helped barricade the home galley and also you had been screaming and pointing in a photograph with Capitol policemen who had their weapons drawn, pointing at that single level of entry. And but, just a few days later, you are on TV, calling it a peaceable vacationer go to? I feel the one option to counter one thing like that’s to name it what it’s: disinformation.
Are you hopeful about folks responding effectively to the lies being referred to as out?
I’m all the time hopeful. I’m all the time bullish on America. I feel we now have been by means of just a few issues worse. The scary factor about saying that’s, you recognize, folks level to the 1860s and say, “Hey, we’ve survived worse before” and sure, we did. But we fought a civil warfare over it. I feel this may solely get higher if folks get up en masse and say the election wasn’t stolen. Your grievances are made up. You’re not those defending the Constitution; you are really undermining it. We needn’t simply these lone voices within the wilderness like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who’re courageous sufficient to inform the reality and lose their jobs for it, however we want a refrain of these sorts of influencers saying that there actually is just one aspect of this pro-democracy argument. And that is the pro-democracy aspect.
