While Russia and China are national security threats, right now the United States might be its own worst enemy with the political "contempt" among those with differing opinions, according to former Defense Secretary James Mattis.
"But internally, my bigger concern is two-fold: It's our growing debt that we're going to transfer to the younger generation with seeming no fiscal discipline, and more than that, it's the lack of friendliness," Mattis told CBS's "Face the Nation." "It's the increasing contempt I see between Americans who have different opinions.
"I mean we're going to have to sit down and remember, if we want this country to survive, we're going to have to work together. And there's no way around that.
"That's the way a democracy is set up. So, I would break it into those two fundamental difference threats right now."
Mattis is promoting his book "Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead," which might have been billed as a knockdown of President Donald Trump, the one who fired him, but it included more criticism of the Obama administration, because Mattis has refrained from criticism of the current administration as it engages in foreign policy.
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