Beware the far right

Distressing news from West Point -- from The Washington Times:

West Point center cites dangers of �far right� in U.S.
A West Point think tank has issued a paper warning America about �far right� groups such as the �anti-federalist� movement, which supports �civil activism, individual freedoms and self-government.�

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled �Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America�s Violent Far-Right.�

The center � part of the institution where men and women are molded into Army officers � posted the report Tuesday. It lumps limited government activists with three movements it identifies as �a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist movement.�

The West Point center typically focuses reports on al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists attempting to gain power in Asia, the Middle East and Africa through violence.

But its latest study turns inward and paints a broad brush of people it considers �far right.�

It says anti-federalists �espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals� civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement.�

So wrong it's not even right. The people on the right want to return the Federal government to its original design -- a creation of the states, empowered with a strict set of checks and balances against misuse and overreach. I thought Army Enlistees had to take an oath to support and defend the Constitution.

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

And, to lump us with those children of pigs and monkeys shows a profound ignorance.