Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-24.247.91.107-20140511154823/@comment-24891101-20150303093347

Eh, you occasionally hear about the smaller fry, but only when they actually do something. Boko Haram springs to mind, as do Al-Shabaab and Lashkar-e-Taiba, in connection with Kenya and Mumbai. Abu Sayyaf and Al-Nusra occasionally. And Hezbollah and Hamas whenever the media turns to Israel.

The White Fang are notable in that they're capable of launching large-scale terrorist attacks in the heart of a first-world nation, with the ability to find rich ground for recruiting among the populace. This is in addition to smaller-scale "nuisance" operations. Abroad, they are capable of strikes against particular human targets of a massive multinational corporation with military contracts. Further, they possess clandestine aircraft launch facilities and a sizeable fleet of air assets, as well as connections with arms dealers and the ability to obtain bleeding-edge military hardware. Their uniforms are standardized, and they can deploy actual soldiers within a major nation.

I am conflating Cinder's group with the White Fang, because this is how it would appear from the outside.

The White Fang are taken seriously because they are a major non-governmental power. Nothing on Earth rivals them. Not even Daesh. Imagine if there were an organization that stood a fair chance of recruiting locals, could move with impunity domestically, had ready access to attack helicopters locally, could hijack and blow up trains, intercept oil shipments, steal entire containers from ports, assassinate key Lockheed Martin executives, and obtain blueprints for advanced aircraft.

While there may be others, they've not risen to prominence nearly as much as the White Fang. We also must consider that there are only four nation on the planet, all of which are peers. Imagine if the more minor organizations were operating in Germany, the UK, China, and the US, all with common purpose, rather than in distant places where we can dehumanize the victims. We'd hear about them too.