Does the U.S. military consider pro-life Americans “terrorists”?

Barely a month and a half ago, a young man tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump. Before that, we had the illegal takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University by radical Palestinian agitators, the widespread vandalism and fire-bombings of pro-life pregnancy centers and ministries around the Dobbs decision, and the rioting associated with the summer of Black Lives Matter. But don’t worry, the real terrorist threat to the United States is apparently the National Right to Life Committee and other pro-life advocates, according to a recent U.S. Army training session.

Sometimes you just can’t make this stuff up. In July, a briefing conducted by the Army’s Directorate of Emergency Services at Fort Liberty (formerly known as Fort Bragg) in North Carolina included a slide discussing “terrorist groups.” The directorate’s responsibilities include ensuring the physical security of the base, which includes law enforcement, fire, and other emergency operations, so it makes sense that it would want to train personnel on potential threats from internal and external actors. It’s probably standard procedure after the Fort Hood (now known as Fort Cavazos) shooting by a radicalized Islamic terrorist in 2009.

What should not be standard was the slide on “terrorist groups,” which featured the logos of the National Right to Life, Operation Rescue, and a “Choose Life” license plate. The slide’s bullet points explained that “anti-abortion” groups engage in various “types of advocacy,” including “demonstrations and protest,” “picketing,” and sidewalk counseling, all of which are clearly protected by the First Amendment. The slide does reference the true and regrettable fact that there have been bombings of abortion centers and targeted killings of abortionists in years past—the last deadly shooting at an abortion center was in Colorado Springs in 2015.

But the slide fails in an obvious way. It conflates legitimate organizations like National Right to Life and legitimate tactics like protests, demonstrations, and sidewalk counseling with illegitimate, immoral, and illegal tactics like murdering abortion providers. It takes a “Choose Life” license plate, a common act of public witness among pro-lifers, and puts it alongside bombers. That sort of “guilt by association” labeling is sloppy at best, intentionally malignant at worst, and irresponsible in all regards for a security professional.

There are several orthogonal concerns as well. First, Fort Liberty’s public affairs office explained, “The slides were developed by a local garrison employee to train soldiers manning access control points at Fort Liberty.” In a world of Chinese spy balloons, rocket attacks on U.S. bases, and pro-Palestinian protestors taking over public spaces, one wonders why a local garrison employee was concerned about pro-life “terrorists” targeting access control points at Fort Liberty. Perhaps those threats were addressed in other slides, but even doing so would not justify including pro-lifers in the list. Just apply the old Sesame Street song, “One of These Things (Is Not Like the Others).” Terrorism briefings are not a platform for a local garrison employee to air his political grievances.

Second, we once again see the obsession after Jan. 6, 2021, with the supposed threat of right-wing domestic terrorism. This is the same mentality that motivated the FBI in its misguided investigation into traditionalist Roman Catholics last year. The agency lost a lot of its credibility with Congress and the American people after that fiasco. It’s a shame to see an Army employee repeating the mistake, not to mention a breakdown in internal oversight and approval process: The Army has also acknowledged that “the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities.”

The public affairs office added that the slides “do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense. …These slides will no longer be used, and all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they align with the current DoD anti-terrorism guidance.” That’s the right initial response from the Army, but the entire episode once again exposes the woke rot that has gripped many of our institutions and the need for a more honest conversation about domestic terrorism moving forward. Let’s take this as a warning.