The issue that introduces Sgt. Slaughter also has Zartan infiltrating The Pit. When Slaughter catches up to Zartan, he's used his holographic projector to disguise himself as Gung-Ho who happens to be standing right in front of him. Slaughter then punches out Zartan. When asked how he knew which was which, he claims it was a lucky guess. However, he could have known from observation and knowledge of U.S. Military logos and insignias. It's been established that Zartan's holographic projector actually disguises him as a reversed image of who he's imitating. Gung-Ho has a tattoo on his chest of the Marine Corps insignia...which is asymmetrical. (Why he doesn't admit this is another story.)
After the real Cobra Commander returns, he buries a group of his enemies in the freighter under a volcano. About a year and a half later, a group of Vipers on patrol find a tunnel leading into the volcano and investigate. They find most of the people trapped down there dead and in advanced stages of decomposition. Why did it take them so long to find this tunnel? Because one of those who managed to escape was Zartan, a master of disguise who carefully disguised the tunnel so that it wouldn't be easily found.
It seems ridiculous that Cobra Commander would be able to assemble a terrorist group that is able to strike so much of the United States from within it. However, the organization is actually recruited from Americans and has thoroughly infiltrated much of America via the Crimson Guard. As such, they can move around freely in the country.
Larry Hama based Cobra Commander's rhetoric around a lot of real life figures like William F. Buckley and other Far Right pundits. While we never get too much into Cobra's ideology, it's usually based on all-too-familiar populist ideology that has cachet today.
That Cobra Commander was able to corrupt an entire American town into becoming irredeemable servants of a domestic terrorist organization without anyone becoming wiser.
