That does not diminish the potency of their attacks or the pain they cause. Thus, while the groups themselves are transnational, with financial and membership ties around the world, the threats they pose are first and foremost local. With neither great power projection nor a compelling ideology on par with global Marxist revolution, VEO groups have limited effects compared to other great power threats. Yet even though death and destruction are their stock and trade, VEO business has largely been confined to a few regional theaters and episodic attacks elsewhere. The 2004 Madrid terrorist attacks drove Spanish voters in fear towards a more isolationist government, a warning every democracy must heed. They can certainly pose significant threats to US interests if unchecked, causing untold suffering and even upending national elections. The first hard truth is that non-state violent extremist organizations do not pose an existential threat to the survival of the United States. Mattis’s departure has created the necessary cognitive opening to question our fundamental and often assumed paradigms to see more clearly the threats facing the nation. The United States needs to face the emerging security environment from a different vantage point than the past 20 years of counter-VEO efforts. New Wine into New Wineskins: How Sudden Change in the Secretary of Defense Office Created a Much Needed Opportunity to Face FactsĪs surprising as the sudden resignation of former Defense Secretary Mattis was, given his steady leadership in the ongoing fight against jihadist terror groups, the net result has turned into a blessing in disguise for the broader national security structure.
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