Pete Hegseth's Crusader Cosplay

When a man literally titles his book American Crusade, we do not get to pretend that we were not warned.

Pete Hegseth has never hidden the fact that he sees politics and American power through the lens of religious struggle. In his 2020 book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, he framed modern political conflict as a civilizational battle infused with Christian identity and destiny. The title wasn’t metaphorical fluff. It was a declaration of intent.

Now that worldview sits inside the Pentagon and it should terrify anyone who understands what happens when war stops being strategy and starts being holy.

To understand what is happening, you have to understand Hegseth, with whom I worked at Fox News. Though Hegseth is in charge of the military, which operates abroad, his real obsession lies with the culture wars here at home. That obsession is at the root of the war in Iran and puts all of us here in the United States in harm’s way.

https://saltypolitics.substack.com/p/pete-hegseths-crusader-cosplay