CBS’ Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan asked Ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis on Sunday what he thinks is the biggest national security threat to the United States, to which the retired Marine Corps general responded, “I think the biggest national security threat can be broken into two segments.”
Mattis first pointed to Russia and China as the nation’s most dangerous external enemies because of their authoritarian and imperialistic impulses.
“So, externally I would look at those two. That’s why we rewrote the national defense strategy to acknowledge the reality of those nations — not the nations that we wanted to be dealing with, but the Russia of Putin, the reality; the China of President Xi.”
Internally, he is very concerned about the growing debt we are passing on to the youth. Secondly, he is concerned about the growing divide.
“It’s our growing debt…with no seeming fiscal discipline,” he said. “But more than that it’s the lack of friendliness. It’s the increasing contempt we see between Americans who have different opinions.”
Nations and empires do fall first from within.
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