America’s war on terror shifts onto home soil
President’s encouragement of armed far right groups sees them eclipse Al Qaeda and ISIS as security threat
AMID the ongoing violence and chaos playing out on the streets, never in living memory has the States appeared so disunited. Gone are the days of Russia or Iran being the biggest threat. to Americans. In today’s US, the greatest danger of death or destruction comes from their fellow countrymen.
Despite the promise that he would make America great again, all the current leader has delivered is a polarised country weakened by hate.
Day in, day out, acts of violence occur on Main Streets across the country between factions, that under Donald Trump, have become so emboldened they now pose a threat to US democracy ahead of next month’s election.
In the past few days alone, a man was shot dead at close range in Denver when a rally between rival far-right and far-left activists erupted in violence, with the whole thing captured on camera, while in Michigan, the FBI smashed a conspiracy to kidnap democratically elected governor Gretchen Whitmer by 13 armed men who planned to start a “civil war”.
Whitmer later highlighted Trump’s willingness to play on America’s divisions as a driver for such plots.
“When our leaders speak, their words matter. They carry weight. When our leaders meet with, encourage or fraternise with domestic terrorists, they legitimise their actions and are complicit,” she said.
“When they stoke and contribute to hate speech, they are complicit.”
It wasn’t difficult to see why Trump was in her crosshairs. Inspired by the President’s demands to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN”, the kidnap attempt came just months after gun-toting demonstrators barged into Michigan’s Capitol building during protests over stay-at-home Covid orders that enraged many on the far right.
At one point, Trump even pushed Whitmer to make a deal with the armed protesters, tweeting that “Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire. These are very good people, but they are angry”.
Those “very good people” were not to be mistaken, of course, for the “very fine people” Trump said were among the armed white nationalists whose 2017 Charlottesville rally ended with the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer when a car was deliberately driven into the crowd of counterprotesters she was among.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security released its first annual Homeland Threat Assessment report, the findings of which were shocking.
It discovered homegrown “ideologically motivated lone offenders and small groups... pose the most likely terrorist threat” – more so than Al Qaeda or ISIS.
Cases, like the ones in Michigan and Denver, go to show just how divided America has become in recent years.
The country would do well to heed the lessons of history. Systemic racism and ongoing social disorder only serve to benefit those who practise the politics of fear and division, disguised under the banner of law and order.
With the presidential election now just three weeks away, America can surely not let the forces of chaos and conflict win again.