In a world cascading with complexities and unpredictabilities, a sinister shadow lurks ominously over the United States, threatening the bedrock of its national security.

Our nation has never been more susceptible to a major terrorist attack since the terrorists attacked America on September 11th, 2001.

These attacks reshaped many lives, including my own, as I was deployed with SEAL Team 3 and would miss the birth of my son Hunter.

I feel like I am waiting for an attack to come at any moment.

This is a harsh revelation, steeped in the turbulent waters of a medically incompetent President, international conflict in Ukraine and Israel with China lurking in the background, and our own political infighting.

We appear close to WWIII, which is shocking for me to even type out in full. Western leadership appears lost in the labyrinth of unpredictability and incompetence, especially in America. Hell, we can’t even stop fighting long enough to elect a Speaker of the House. Our political system and participants more mimic an MTV reality show than it does a professional organization that represents the people.

In a landscape strewn with fragments of turmoil and conflict, the stance of some towards Israel paints a perplexing portrait. Israel is a fortress of democracy in a tumultuous region, an ally that has weathered the sands of conflict and adversity.

Then, the shocking reverberation as American voices rise in support of Hamas, an organization marked with the indelible ink of terrorism, its foundations intertwined with the shadows of Iran and other purveyors of chaos.

How have we forgotten so soon and arrived at the point where the woke scales are tipping towards groups like Hamas, who are bathed in the ominous hues of terror and destruction?

I find myself navigating my own currents of apprehension as I look through the daily headlines describing a very feeble President’s journey fraught with political risk and an international dog and pony show driven by hopes of infusing vitality into a flagging re-election bid against what appears to be another Trump showdown.

Then we have the helm of the American nation steered by a commander-in-chief besieged by medical uncertainties; the course seems fraught with unforeseen missteps that must keep Biden’s handlers up at night. The machinery of decision-making appears to be ensnared in the quagmire of incompetence, as the sentinel of our great nation seems precariously balanced on the precipice of a volatile geopolitical abyss as the World looks to the US and sees the wheel of the ship unmanned and spinning wildly.

As far back as 2010 we have been securely back to square one with regard to the sharing of intelligence information between the different agencies, especially the Department of State and the CIA. These three letter agencies are infected with careerism and bureaucracy that leaves America with its trousers around our ankles.

“We used to have to send our intel via courier in order to reduce the risk of deniability within the State Department.”, a confidential CIA disclosed to SOFREP during the Benghazi debacle.

Although our system thoroughly covers all aspects of intelligence collection and analysis, it is by a pantheon of oft-competing entities, each trying to show their independent relevance. A counterproductive system that’s wasteful of public funds and rife with inter-agency turf wars. Among the major world powers, we are unique in devoting so many separate entities to intelligence work. The British have 4 major intelligence agencies, one for external operations, MI-6 — the Secret Intelligence Service of James Bond fame, MI-5, for domestic counter-intelligence, Defence Intelligence for the military and GCHQ, the U.K. equivalent of our National Security Agency (NSA). –The Hill

Our vulnerabilities are laid bare, exposed to the harsh winds of potential terrorist threats. Our adversaries, lurking in the shadows, Putin and Xi licking their chops alongside Iran and they may perceive a real opening through which to unleash the ferocity of a 9/11 part two.

Now we stand at a crossroads this election season and the path we tread will be inscribed in the annals of history, a narrative of triumph or a tale of another harrowing attack on US soil by a terrorist cell standing by for a wink from our enemies abroad.

This keeps me up at night and should give you night sweats as well.