• Jack Weinstein

    Lieutenant General, United States Air Force (Ret.)

    Jack Weinstein Profile

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There are 10 comments on POV: America’s Greatest National Security Threat

  1. Many thanks for this quintessentially sane commentary. One of the major obstacles to solving this problem is that there is too much money to be made in the so-called “defense industry”. There are powerful vested interests focused on sustaining the arms race with our perceived external “enemies”. The “military-industrial complex” that President Eisenhower worried about is more alive and well than ever. Perhaps we need to find a way of making the teaching of civics profitable. Within the reigning American ethos, that might be the only way to change the current dynamics.

  2. I’m just tired of the media still spinning the facts to suite a political agenda. It’s Devided the country & they continue to spread the hate & fear mongering! Our president is weak & hollow. He’s fake & a proven liar. NOBODY HAS FAITH IN OUR GOVERNMENT! I fear soon we will look to Veteran leaders (Ret) to solve the problem. Cities burned all summer & the president says White supremacists are our greatest threat?!? I’m sorry but I disagree. OUR GREATEST THREAT IS THE MEDIA.
    Sincerely,
    American Citizen

  3. Thanks for a good article with good points .
    Too many Americans no longer embrace this country , it’s flag or its democracy. So called news media’s are actually agenda driven propaganda outlets. Politicians are unashamedly selfish , hateful & power hungry. The military industrial complex has had all the wars they desired from 1950 til today, while sacrificing our sons & daughters and bankrupting America & running up $30 trillion in debt. Americans long ago ceased discussing what best for the American people , and instead what’s best for “their” political party. Americans have replaced worshipping GOD the creator and instead worship their political leaders. So many Americans call the pandemic a hoax and a plandemic, and interpret door to door vaccinations as communism & attempts to kill them so the government can takeover.
    Between the propaganda outlets , military industrial complex and the abandonment of right and wrong for the left and the right, is this country even worth the effort of salvaging?

  4. Thank you Gen. Well said. As you mentioned, 37% of the American people don’t have a fundamental knowledge of how our democracy functions is disconcerting. The media is the main source of information for the masses in regards to elections, campaigns, candidates and legislation. When the integrity of our journalistic institutions comes into question, that I believe is the undercurrent of dissention that erodes public trust. My own personal political views are irrelevant, and announcing them, in today’s climate, is to open myself up to uncivilized dialog with those who oppose my beliefs. No longer can neighbors debate casually without an elevation of personal recriminations. I wish more could see as I do, that forces in direct opposition to liberty, freedom and democracy sow the seeds of discord among the citizens who blindly accept information spoonfed by their 24 hour news Channel of choice. The crux of the problem as I see it, comes from the very foundation of party politics. It is a simple question, what is the role of the government? Is it to aid in the pursuit of happiness? Or is it to only do what an individual can not, building airports, interstates, patrol our borders, keep fraud out of our financial system? I was raised in the shadow of MAD (mutually assured distruction) and remember having nightmares about nuclear fire. Instead, I watched a wall come down. How can I take the youth of our nation seriously when one collage student thought socialism was being nice to people. I doubt Carl Marx anticipated those sentiments. Thank you for your service General. My father in law was Air Force, got himself blown up by the NVA near DaNang in ’65. Spend the next few years playing basketball for the USAF

    1. This article is so on point. As far as I can tell the GOP has completely crapped their diapers over the past couple decades. We can longer recognize the Republican Party as the party of conservatism; they’ve all become subservient to Donald Trump and his bag of lies, disinformation, corruption, and holy smokes – brazen top secret document theft?!?!

      I fear the ignorance, hate, fear, and radicalism of the Right and the highly politicized Supreme Court is going to take our great nation to the breaking point – Russia and China won’t have to fire a shot.

  5. Nice article . I agree. But with all you said about Jan. 6 and all the evidence we obtained we can find people in our government to actually hold the real people who caused it responsible over 2 years later.
    We have a do nothing but blame everyone else congress.

  6. Great article! I agree with your statement “The twisting of facts erodes confidence in our elected officials, the media, and how we deal with each other,” and wanted to additionally share my thoughts on fact twisting and how it can also play a role of our national security.

    Similar to the article, I can see the viewpoint of how misinformation can impact our government’s trust, but I wanted to expand on how misinformation that is not politically centered can additionally impact social relationships and our future generations who will play a role in our future America.

    Considering how many media consumers and teenagers browse TikTok on a daily basis, many are introduced to short clips broadcasting public opinions and what they believe are factual, yet many do not conduct the back-end research to actually validate a TikToker’s claim — many TikTokers tend to spread misinformation in attempt to grasp popularity. For example, it can be as minor as claiming mixing salt, sugar, and water generates snow or the popular “Cap or Slap” trend.

    While we would prefer to not fact-check each TikTok, it seems to be required to actually verify information and learn. What I more worry about is when it comes to fact-checking, will future resources still be credible? How can we decrease the number of fact-tweaking incidents?

    Not only will the future generation will be leading the national security and the government, but they will also be the leaders of corporations and even box-office films. These leaders will be the same gullible TikTok user and could be making life-impacting decisions from fraudulent evidence or statistical analysis. Ultimately, I think misinformation is indeed the largest factor in our country’s downfall, and believe it is not just only in the political realm, but also will impact the world in more aspects. We need to figure out how to decrease the spread of social information to alleviate this issue.

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