"Who do you see as the biggest threat?" Topic

Of these, who do you see as the biggest threat? in order.

Russia
China
North Korea
Radical Islam/Iran

It really is almost a 3 part question, but too hard to do it that way. Who do you see as the biggest threat to the US? Worldwide? Most likely to cause immediate casualties.

From my personal perspective

Radical Islam/Iran – they have killed more of our citizens and soldiers. They pose a threat everywhere, US, Worldwide(they just attacked Russia over the weekend). I believe most likely to use a nuke or major Chemical/biological weapons. Jihadi religion.
China – massive expansion of their military. Causing confrontations in the Pacific. Threatening Taiwan and the Philippines. Spy balloon flyovers. Infrastructure hacking, spying and interference. Looking to test their military and others. Nukes.
North Korea – Very unstable leadership. Massive poverty. relies on his military power.
Constant threats and Nuke testing. Nukes.
Russia – They are currently occupied in the Ukraine. I don't think their military is capable of a multiple front major war. Their infrastructure, military, agricultural and economic, could not handle a larger war. Their logistics are as usual.. horrible.

Fom an US perspective.

Radical Islam/Iran
Russia
China
North Korea

The last 2 are interchangeable.

The biggest threat to our way of life in the USA are the radicals Americans calling for civil war. They have no concept concerning the level of disruption at every level.

About your original choices radical Islam. It is a personal level of commitment. It is not dependent on a government which can and will change.

From my perspective:
China-hell bent on becoming the next dominant power which requires implosion of the US or military defeat of the US

Russia-would be lower on the list if not for Ukraine

Islam- Good at small scale stuff. Not large scale wars. Israel is already taking care of a lot of the bad actors.

NK-Kim is into self preservation. We leave him alone and he'll bluster just to get aid

Radical Islam/Iran
Russia
China
North Korea

All of the above … Plus …

The biggest threat to our way of life in the USA are the radicals Americans calling for civil war. They have no concept concerning the level of disruption at every level.

Very true … even after the upcoming election. There will be chaos … No matter how it turns out.

Most likely to do something spectacularly awful – North Korea

Biggest legitimate military challenge -China

Most annoying but least existential threat – Radical Islam

North Korea might actually use a nuke. China while grossly overrated as an economy is on the Russian path of big military, lousy economic behavior. Radical Islam can/will do atrocities but they do not represent a genuine military threat to the US.

+1 TimePortal

+2 Time Portal

China
Radical Islam
Russia
North Korea

However, I do agree with Time Portal. We are letting the Far Left and Far Right rip this country apart for their own, supposed, political gain.

All originally cited threats are valid, and I'll take them more or less in the order presented, but, yes, morons on both ends of the political spectrum (which are, in fact, indistinguishable in effect) who think civil war will sort things out, might be the greatest of them all.

As an aside, the points made about Jihadists not being a direct military threat are well taken, but it's not that there could be whole armies of them, rather that just enough could find a way to get one or more nukes and/or other WMD.

Ain't we got fun?

TVAG

In college political science courses back in the 1970s, the political spectrum graph was circular, not in a straight line. This showed that the political objectives of the far right and far left were closer than realized.

China
Islam
North Korea
Russia

Legion 4 +1

American radicals and their social and cable media outlets. Constant negative perspectives make us look weak to the rest of the world, including to the rest on the list.

The jihadists are the most dangerously unpredictable. Suicidal fanatics. Hard to stop, hard to eliminate.

+2 Time Portal

From a damned foreigner's perspective:

World wide

1. China- smithsco summed it up nicely.

2. Russia- Putin is three hampers short of a picnic, so is capable of doing anything.

3 and 4- Not much to choose from, here. But both could act as triggers to set off the PRC and/or Russia. By themselves they are irritants.

For the US:

1. Looking from the outside, these days, the US seems to be nearly hopelessly fragmented. The divisions within the US are created/aided by those in government and your main political parties who foster a deliberately divisive "Us and Them" mentality. They've turned your nation into two opposing armed camps. I see some of the same thing here, though it's not at the armed camp stage, just aggressive rivalry. The big question is who, if any, is facilitating and encouraging the divisions in the US? Foreigners or domestic players?

Short term – Russia

Long term – Chinna

I migth add that Irans diplomacy is consistent and clear if you listen. They are very logical in ther talking points. The same with the houthis and hisbollah. But they are never cited in the western press, just western persons who know better. They do no0t not say what you want to hear, but they are consistent. Also it is important to point out two things. It was USA who sougth a diplomatic solutions with the houthis, and not the opposite. And USA has just said it cant interfere in lebanon.. The world has changed, and IT and electronics are for smart people, and both Houthis and Hisbolla is smart people. Do not mistake brown skin for stupidity. I would advise USA to either rearm as consistent with the ukrainian war lessons or withdraw.

Radical Islam/Iran
China is a paper tiger. Corruption is rife in nearly every aspect of Chinese life – there's no way this hasn't permeated deep into their military. They haven't fought a major war in over half a century. China is far more dangerous to the Chinese than anyone else.
Russia and North Korea are regional powers with fairly constrained hegemonic impulses.

Concur, Sir Harry.

1. Radical Islam
2. Russia
3. China
4. North Korea

+1 Armchair General and I see it as a bipartisan problem.

Like most great powers in history the most likely seeds to our possible demise are probably internal.

@Dal Gavan…both foreign and domestic. The far right is fairly small and not a significant threat politically but is clearly supported by Russia. The Russians picked the fringe group everyone else hates. They're mostly losers who play at army and no girl will date. They don't seek power as much as wanting to kill people they hate. These guys make memes and dream of shooting up mosques and synagogues. Real losers. Really incapable of systemic change. Trump is accused of being far right. He isn't. He's basically a 1990s Democrat who panders on some Republican talking points to get nominated. As a conservative I don't view him as aligning with me.
The far left is in bed with the CCP because commies are gonna commie. They want control of all levels of government and will work with whoever gives it to them. They scare me because they hold real sway in the democratic party.

I would say it is the far left-pro Hamas radicals attacking the Jews and the synagogues. We are seeing it weekly.

Just last weekend

Subject: CNN's Jake Tapper, L.A. Synagogue Targeted By Pro-Palestine Groups


link

For the world I see a much bigger problem. If the USA stops playing global cop, handing out foreign aid and withdraws from our alliances the world will go to hell very quickly…

Yes, if the US did all that … much of the planet would be in a world of hurt. But again, the US needs real leadership. And not a woke, progressive, DEI, CRT/1619, socialist agenda/experiment…

The USA has citizens complaint about the level of global assistance being provided. Yet they complain when the Chinese picks up the slack or even provides, on the surface, better aid.

Shorter American: "My country is being divided and undermined by people who simply can't manage to be as reasonable as I am."

We complain a lot these days. Again radicals on both ends of the spectrum have riled everyone up. I dislike the extremes but see no solution.

Self identified "Progressives" of the Radical Left who are working to destroy the country from within.

The Radical Right, who are also working to destroy the country from within on a different level.

Radical Islam.

Those are my top 3 as an American.

1. Not Russia. No matter how this war ends its not going to be back to business as usual afterwards. The world has largely disengaged from it economically. They don't have the know how to rebuild their industrial infrastructure and no western companies are going to be dumb enough to go back in to do it for them. Putin might push the button for some sort of gotterdammerung (sp?) but will the military comply, and will they even work? Everyone wonders who might succeed Putin as the government is all Putin Clones. Figure on a left field oligarch who turns out to be a Russian mafia boss.

2. Not China. China is like one of those tops that have begun their death wobble. Their economy is a collapsing house of cards. Their military is made up of Russian knock offs. And we know now how well that garbage works. Russian equipment has been unable to beat the marginally prepared Ukrainians. Taiwan has been prepping for an invasion for 70 years. We know that at least some of China's ICBMs are fueled with water. China is in demographic collapse. By 2050 China will likely be below 1B people. If China pisses off anybody real good, 2 blue water destroyers off Singapore could cut China off from the 50% of their energy imports and 70% of their fertilizer imports. Famine within 1 year. They can convert to soft coal for energy, at the cost of biblical smog.

3. Not North Korea. If Washington ever REALLY decided that North Korea was going to really do something really stupid, Rocket Man would have a tragic oopsie in the shower. His sister might be crazy, but she ain't stupid.

4. Not Iran. Iran is on the verge of being rendered irrelevant. Iran's biggest worry ought not to be Israeli or American nukes. It ought to be the 2 dozen Saudi nukes they buy from Pakistan, when they decide its time.

5. Not radical Islam. Radical Islam is the Middle Eastern equivalent of prickly heat. It flairs up from time to time, but it's just an annoyance. If it were any kind of real threat those dumb fat and happy Gulf States who couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag would have been caliphated years ago.

6. Not domestic partisanship. It's a menacing prospect, but once the whacko flag bearer has been neutered in any one of the dozen ways that are coming for him, things will simmer down, and Mitt Romney will descend from Mount Emmons to lead the American right back up onto the broad open plain of moderation. A coalition of moderates and responsible academics will lead the liberal left out of the wilderness of post modernist dogma and we'll return to elections between choices of good and better, vs terrible and worse.

Not civil war. If shooting starts just shut off the wifi. "I'm not fighting if I can't post about it."

7. Not the immigrant deluge. The boomers are retiring. They were the largest generation in US history. We are losing about 500k people from our work force annually. Before long there won't be people at our southern border. The inflow of Mexicans has stopped. We're still getting Central Americans and Venezuelans but that won't last forever. A significant number of our illegals now are from India, many via Canada. We need immigrants. We can realize our predicament and start making babies, but that won't help for 20 years. We need a sane immigration policy, like yesterday.

Biggest threat hasn't revealed itself yet…

From another viewpoint, you could include:

Billionaires?
Industrialists?
Capitalists?
White Supremacists?
Big Corporations?
Big Oil?
Big Pharma?

The biggest threat?
The sane that it has always been.
Stupidity…

Against stupidity the God's themselves contend in vain.

I. Asimov

I believe that Bill has hit the nail on the head.

This book makes an interesting case for North Korea:

Nuclear War: A Scenario
by Annie Jacobsen (Author)
a.co/d/04rLRNwx

For the Department of Navy, the PRC and it's PLAN. They have lapped all other threats and have our full attention. Everything happening in the Ukraine and Mideast theatres are viewed through this lens and it gets folded into requirements, acquisitions, and TTPs. Its a bit like the Spainish civil war in the 30s or the Soviets during the Cold War.

George Soros and those who buy politicians like I buy miniatures.

Choctaw hit the nail on the head. Soros has done more damage to the US with his billions than the other 4 combined. Where's James Bond when we need him?

Soros would be up there on my list.
But the ideology he presents is more dangerous.
And although it will make many here mad I would add
the current leader of the conservatives.

+1 Grattan. He is not the leader of this conservative.

I think James Bond is having sex with Black Widow's step mom.

Of the initial choices, I consider Putin and Russia a greater threat than most of you do. I think his intention is to overrun most of Europe, especially what he considers to be old Russian Empire territory. And he seems to be the most willing to use a nuclear option to get what he desires.

1. The biggest threat to our way of life will be from within the USA they are the radical Americans calling for civil disorder i.e. the Marxist, Socialist/Communist and their elite supports on the coasts and those in our education system.
2. Islam as it's ok here in the US just don't be Jewish…
3. China
4. Anyone left after WWWIII.

Russia
China
Radical Islam/Iran
North Korea

Grattan +1

And there are number of people, institutions, etc. that feel as Soros does …

I guess that is why in the Oath taken by the Army, it includes "enemies foreign & domestic". It becomes much clearer now …

China is like one of those tops that have begun their death wobble. Their economy is a collapsing house of cards.

I've been reading that since before their Cultural Revolution, Exeter, and the CCP is still in power. I think all we see of China is the painted face they want us to see. Xi would be quite happy for a few million rich and middle class to fail, in order to look like an economic basket case- and less of a threat to the West.

I'd be more than happy to be wrong about the PRC, but I doubt it's the Russians or North Koreans sponsoring all the division and unrest in western nations, these days. PRC Premier Li Quang was able to call up anti-Free Tibet protestors on his recent state visit to Australia, for example, to out-shout the Free Tiber crew that always gathers.

I'd be more than happy to be wrong about the PRC, but I doubt it's the Russians or North Koreans sponsoring all the division and unrest in western nations, these days.

It is not. If you ever read Quora, there's lots of Cghinese that trash talk the US

Damon

From a foreigners perspective, but someone who is interested in geopolitics…

Terrorism is an act of weakness, they may score a few spectacular successes, but really they are a drop in the ocean compared to road traffic deaths etc. Unpleasant, but not state threatening, so not ISIS, NK, militias or whatever.

Russia is a dying Empire, and dying Empires are dangerous. Russias never ended campaign of cyberwarfare, subversion, disinformation and sponsorship of UIs and disruptive characters have destablised the west. Brexit was a huge foreign policy success for Russia. These are also still the acts of a weak power, economically we outgun then 20:1. Putin may of course feel an existential threat to the State and push the nuclear button. More dangerous than NK/ISIS etc.

The two biggest threats are twofold and both arise from the same cause:

1. social unrest and division in the west due to the vastly widening gulf of inequality between the 1% and everyone, coupled with flat incomes, precarious employment, inflated housing costs and the vast increase in private debt

2. Chinas rising economic power and the attractiveness of authoritarian state managed capitalism as a political-economic system. China threatens US global hegemony, and as with Russia rising and falling Empires go through a dangerous stage when they sort out their relationships with each other. War often results, sometimes it doesn't (eg US and UK). The US is of course protected to a degree by the dollar remaining the worlds reserve currency (nice job guys!) and it is a long way off being supplanted.

Both are due to deregulated globalised capitalism starting in the 1980s, which has offshored productive capacity (to the benefit of China), rewards speculation and not production, takes a short term view of everything, and has benefitted a very small number of people at the expense of everyone else. The postwar contract has broken down, and lots and lots of people are deeply annoyed and look to nationalist populism as a solution to their problems. And that is a very, very dangerous world, genuine end of the Roman Empire stuff. tbh we need to take the world back from the speculators and profiteers.

I see myself as the biggest threat.

I just need resources.

Once I get resources, there will be no stopping me.