The Pentagon is investigating extremism in the military. Here’s how bad the problem is

The Pentagon’s most recent search for extremists within the ranks was just the latest failure to find evidence that the military is a breeding ground for violent radicals, a Fox News review has found.

The Department of Defense identified fewer than 100 instances of confirmed extremist activity in 2021, the Pentagon reported in December. Despite significant rhetoric from Democrats, media pundits and activists, the finding was unsurprising to more than 30 current and former service members who spoke with Fox News.

“I noticed zero extremism during my time in the military,” Matthew Griffin, a former Army Ranger, told Fox News. “None. Didn’t witness it at all.”

Each service member echoed similar remarks, explicitly saying they’d never seen any extremist behavior.

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The service members Fox News interviewed ranged from cadet to major. They spanned five branches and the political spectrum, and their service dates as far back as 1980.

Being unable to find even 100 extremists in the military “is a success story and shows that extremism is not a large problem,” a former command sergeant major said.

Many said the service would even stamp out extremism since it would harm unit cohesion – a critical component to combat effectiveness across the branches. They also told Fox News that the military serves as a sort of melting pot that exposes recruits to unfamiliar cultures and people.

“Even if you are kind of a piece of s–t, you have to be able to depend on the people with you or else you’ll die or get hurt real bad,” Jariko Denman, a retired Army Ranger, told Fox News. “All of the kind of ignorance that leads to extremist behavior, it’s squashed because you’re immersed in all these other…