A Second Cold War: How America Must Handle 21st Century National Security

Occupy Wall Street, the economy, political scandals, and GOP candidates have consumed the nation’s airwaves. Media outlets constantly fail in reporting the reality of our myriad national security threats. Some people believe the disservice behind the main stream media is a smoke screen shielding Americans from reality. Such beliefs are difficult to disagree with.

The world faces grave circumstances, circumstances that do affect every person. The situation cannot be rectified, marginalized, or mitigated unless more media coverage occurs. The world is in another Cold War.

Today’s Cold War is nothing like yesteryear. It is a Cold War backed by more than one nation state–a Cold War employing ideological warfare which has induced global mass violence among extremists, a Cold War implementing unconventional tactics including economic, natural resource, and cyber sabotage. This is a Cold War which could inevitably turn into a nuclear catastrophe.

While the strategy is taken precisely out of Sun Tzu’s playbook, the tactics are impeccably hidden through deception. Some may claim such statements are fear mongering. Others may claim such statements are made on baseless terms with a hidden agenda to continue global military operations. Such interpretations are false.

It is imperative to turn off your televisions, put down your remotes, and begin embracing historical documents about mass movements, world wars, covert activities, globalized economic sabotage, etc. It is encouraged to start by reading the Council on Foreign Relations book titled the North South Stalemate: The 1980s Project. After such readings, study the more well-known like Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and Guevara, then transition to the lesser known like Fanon, Nkrumah, along with other social revolutionists and propagandists like Yorgen Cain Kylbel.

America is swiftly shattering. Maybe it is on the brink of total collapse. If that happens, rest assured the entire world will have collapsed as well. But we cannot allow this.

We can desire a future President of the United States who has impeccable ideas to bring back this economy and allow the citizens to embrace employment opportunities. While such a President is needed, the economy should not be the priority; rather, national security must come first. Without a fully secured nation, an economy cannot grow–period.

But what is national security? It is not just about national defense. No, it is a system of entities which comprise an overall blanket of safety to the nation. National Security comprises of economic, political, military, and social systems. You cannot feasibly work on one of the nodes within the national security system and allow the others to waste away.

If anyone studies the aforementioned literature and mentioned philosophers, they will find that everything they had written has come to fruition–globally. But here, inside the United States, our national security systems have been sabotaged. We the people can fix them–we the people MUST fix them. If we fail, we will have lost the Great Second Cold War.

Kerry Patton, a combat service disabled veteran, is a senior analyst for WIKISTRAT. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, focusing on intelligence and security and interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. He is the author of Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies and the children’s book American Patriotism. You can follow him on Facebook.