Photo: Paul Chabot.
Like a plague, organized evil is spreading out of control. Chaos is everywhere — the time to fight back is running out. Good and dark forces have locked horns; the future of the free-world as we know it is in jeopardy.
I propose a new strategy to implement on the battlefield, a strategy that helps us better learn firsthand the tactics and resilience of evil, and most importantly, how we can fight back and turn the tide for humanity.
I recently released a book, "Eternal Battle Against Evil," that explores the nature of organizational resilience as it applies to these sinister organizations. The process is simple — we must first better know our enemy, and in doing so, we can look at history's most notorious drug cartels that are formally known as drug trafficking organizations (DTOs). What does it take for a DTO to remain resilient and thrive in a world of constant change and uncertainty? Despite a full-fledged war against the major DTOs, why have the U.S. and Mexico not been able to fully dismantle these organizations?
An in-depth examination of the key elements of organizational resilience will help provide answers to this question. In particular, this will be accomplished through a brutal account of the Arellano-Felix DTO and the dismantling efforts made by the U.S. and Mexican governments. The Arellano-Felix DTO was one of the most violent of the Mexican DTOs (although today largely diminished).
This key to fighting evil of all sorts is simply to understand what keeps it alive, so we can better replicate our successful efforts against terror networks, pirates, gangs and organized crime. Like a heat-seeking missile, the good must focus on those sustaining pillars of the enemy's strength to destroy the tentacles of the serpent.
I didn't truly understand what made up these evil organizations until I was sent to Iraq to work with the joint special operation forces targeting the highest level of the Al-Qaeda leadership. For the eight years leading up to this, my life was immersed in studying the makeup and resilience of one of the world's most notorious criminal enterprises. What astonished me in Iraq was how similar the Al-Qaeda organizational structure was to those of drug trafficking organizations.
The further I explored, the more shocking the truth became — evil does have a face, a body, and a remarkably strong structure built to prevent failure.
To tear apart evil, we must simply reverse-engineer its strenghts. We identify those evil, resilient characteristics and then correctly align our resources (such as the military, law enforcement and civilian assets) against them, and fight like hell.
The evils we face — violence, intimidation, and corruption — have steadily escalated over the years. Beheadings, mass murders, and Al-Qaeda-style car bombs have become part of life in certain areas of Mexico. For America, terror is at our doorsteps and is creeping into our shadows. Without a new strategy to fight this war, drug cartels and every other evil organization around the globe will present a bleak future for the free world.
The time is at hand to fight back — not only here, but in every corner of the Earth where sinister organizations raise their ugly heads. Evil shares similar traits, motives, skills, structures and personalities. Make no mistake. These are sinister organizations in their purest form, stretching their claws to perfect chaos globally.
These tactics of chaos have long been used by drug lords to instill fear. This is the spread of the cancer known as "narco-terrorism." Perhaps we thought, and hoped, this evil would never rise to this level so close to home. We were taught that these things only take place on the streets of the Middle East, in Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps even Colombia. Joint governmental efforts have been battling drug lords since the early 1980s, but not in Mexico and not along the border in the measures required today. It's unthinkable that this evil trespasses into our own backyard and threatens our national security.
Time is short; we must move now and fight in both the light and shadows, never ever giving up, because giving up seals the fate of humanity as we know it. We must strike now! We have reached critical mass. It is time for a global "call to action," led by America, to take down the mightiest of the Goliaths so our children may inherit a safer world.
Paul Chabot is the author of the book "Eternal Battle Against Evil," and president of Chabot Strategies.
