How do Antifa, white supremacy, and other radical movements affect the United States? How will they affect the election and safety here in America?
As risk managers, intelligence professionals, and law enforcement prepare for unexpected unrest due to the end of an enormously volatile political season, it bears the question, who is the problem here? For years, we have analyzed radical left and right groups for national security reasons. The federal government has focused mainly on white supremacy, white nationalist, and transnational gangs, but the real agitators are within our borders. How do we combat those within our walls, who would love to see our nation burn?
An ideological war is something America has been fighting for over 20-years. We have endured the terror and spoils of combating the idea that radical extremists and western society could co-exist. We have experienced a loss of life that cannot fully be measured in time due to the relentlessness of the global war on terrorism. When we look at the Global War on Terror (GWOT), do we see completeness with any of our efforts? Did we accomplish anything of substance? The radical “Political” groups in the United States today are no different from the Ba’ath Party of Iraq. The operational activist movements like Antifa are no different from the “power vacuum” created Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). One is the political movement, and the other is the operational terrorist movement. Both need each other like oxygen to a fire. Suppose we analyze domestic and international movements that have historically created unrest. In that case, we could talk for hours about groups like the Irish Republican Army, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Ku Klux Klan, Abu Sayyaf, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and Aum Shinrikyo. Places like Japan, Greece, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and Ukraine. And times in history, such as the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and 1965, or the Detroit riots in 1967. All of these instances have one thing in common – a difference in opinion.
Who is driving the hate and discontent within our borders? Experts believe that this hardcore activist movement we are currently seeing with the left is an effort to provoke the right. No country can single-handedly take on the United States of America. Someone, or should I say somewhere, is rooting for us to destroy each other using the very thing we fear most as a society, which is acceptance.
“Someone…is rooting for us to destroy each other…”
As a nation, we have grappled with racial injustice for decades, never really facing the fact that our government’s injustices long ago were the sins of the father and not the son. We allow outside forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to play us against each other in the rarest of circumstances. All of this comes back to the political election and the geopolitical climate created by the current administration. One may start to consider that the effort to undermine the 2016 election was foreshadowing bigger things to come.
White nationalist movements have been labeled to be of more significant concern to national security due to the expectation of greater placement and access to hardware, equipment, and knowledge to commit more strategic acts of violence in recent Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement interviews. In a counterterrorism role, experts tend to look at vast amounts of data. Still, the single most crucial piece is to intercept a subject or group at the moment when they go from playing keyboard warrior to an “operational” mindset. It does not matter to our national security and risk management professional what party lines or affiliation exist within a person’s belief or a group. We only care about the moment they want to become the executioner versus the watcher.
For the past 12-years, I have been working alongside the best in counterterrorism and asymmetrical warfare. We have seen a trend of growing threats to the American people, which we can no longer ignore.
Like 9/11, we missed something here. The virus, then followed by some of the worst and most coordinated civil unrest this nation has ever witnessed. The question we should be asking is not why, but who? Who can populate the data sets, the bot campaigns, raise the millions of dollars that have organized and funded activist movements? Again, no one has been able to dismantle the United States through war or combat. The way to destroy the west is to pit us against each other.
America’s safety is at a breaking point. Whomever the instigator, they want nothing more than to destroy this country. The list of culprits is long, and America is tired and restless. Which, in turn, makes us weak. We are allowing the racial divide to break down our sovereignty and growth. No matter what side you are on, the American spirit is broken, and to keep our nation’s freedoms we must recognize that unity is paramount.
Whether we are discussing an alt-right group attacking voting polls or Marxist members of Antifa targeting law enforcement officers in a tactical ambush, both are beliefs that runs deep to the core; both are hate crimes for the other’s opinion. One cannot blame the other for actions without further action. It is a constant cycle of disinformation that drives the motives of negative influencers. Their way is not the only way. Finding co-existence is the way. Finding a talking point, a stable ground to discuss and plan change.
The movement to defund the police is nothing more than a Marxist movement to destabilize the country. Defunding is a method of weakening and or demoralizing the ones who will be the light in the darkness. We must focus the conversation on how we better fund, train, and determine who polices our streets and maintains safety for our families—creating a path for a better, safer, and more prosperous country.
Regardless of the election outcome, or political views, our conversation needs to be about this nation’s safety and security. Businesses, law enforcement officials, and members of the intelligence community must provide leadership and guidance during a time of crisis. Those in Washington need to consider the time to build a fellowship around a safe, secure, and prosperous United States of America is now.
A better today is a safer tomorrow.
