We Never Asked For A Crusade
How Religious Fanatics Hijacked the Pentagon, Mocked Democracy, and Made You Pay for Armageddon
The Accusation Is a Confession
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood before reporters and warned of “crazy regimes like Iran, hell-bent on prophetic Islamist delusions,” he was not describing the enemy.
The so-called Secretary of War was describing the United States — specifically, the Christian Nationalists who have hijacked its Pentagon and are now dragging an unwilling nation toward Armageddon.
Every accusation from this administration is a confession. They accuse Iran of stalling negotiations — while bombing them at the negotiating table. They accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons — while ensuring the bomb becomes Tehran’s only rational option. And now they accuse Iran of holy war — while their own troops are told that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran, which will lead to Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”.
Hegseth’s framing is a window: the war with Iran is being waged as a crusade by men who believe they are fulfilling biblical prophecy. They have hijacked the Pentagon, ignored the will of the American people, and set course for Armageddon. What they do not have is the industrial capacity to sustain what they’ve started, the moral authority to command the world’s respect, or the sanity to recognize that “bringing about Armageddon” means bringing about the end of everything.
And you are paying for it.
The Holy War They Confess
The Commander’s Words
Listen to Hegseth’s language. On March 4, he told reporters that Iran is driven by “prophetic Islamist delusions” and insisted such regimes cannot be allowed nuclear weapons. Days earlier, he declared that “the United States did not start this conflict, but we will finish it”.
This is the vocabulary of religious war projected onto an enemy. The irony is that while Hegseth speaks of Iranian delusions, his own troops are hearing something very different.
What Troops Are Hearing
According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), a watchdog organization that has fought religious extremism in the military for two decades, over 200 service members have filed complaints since the strikes began. The complaints span all branches and more than 50 military installations.
One non-commissioned officer wrote in an email to MRFF:
This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now. He urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
The commander reportedly told his unit that Trump “has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” The NCO added: “He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this, which made his message seem even more crazy”.
Mikey Weinstein, MRFF founder and a former Air Force officer, stated it plainly: “What we’ve been saying forever, if you look back in history whenever you’ve merged any sort of religious fanaticism with the machinery of the state that conducts war, we do not end up with little babbling brooks, creeks, streams, ponds or lakes. We end up with one thing: oceans and oceans of blood”.
Weinstein noted that Hegseth has “taken a jackhammer” to the separation of church and state at the Pentagon, holding monthly prayer gatherings featuring far-right Christian nationalists. The message from the top is clear: this is a holy war.
This is not a war the American people asked for. Poll after poll shows a majority opposed to military action against Iran. But the crusaders do not answer to polls. They answer to prophecy. They answer to donors. They answer to a higher power that, conveniently, always seems to want exactly what they wanted anyway.
Every accusation a confession:
- “Iran wages holy war” → We are waging a crusade
- “Iran is irrational” → We are preparing for Armageddon
- “We didn’t start this” → We bombed them while they negotiated
- “We fight for democracy” → We ignored what the people wanted
The Unwise War: The Empire Has No Clothes
The Missile Math
A standard American interceptor — the SM-3 or THAAD — costs between $10 million and $15 million per missile. Some advanced variants exceed $20 million. Iranian drones cost as little as $20,000. A medium-range ballistic missile might run $1 million. And despite the June 2025 strikes and the current campaign, Iran retains an estimated 2,500 ballistic missiles — the largest stockpile in the region.
Do the math.
In a war of attrition, that calculus is catastrophic.
CNN reported March 2 that the United States is facing shortages of Tomahawk land-attack missiles and SM-3 interceptors. Patriot missile stocks were depleted by the Ukraine war. One Gulf ally is already “running low on crucial interceptor munitions,” according to a regional source who told CNN: “It’s not panic yet, but the sooner they get here the better”.
Before the war began, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and other military leaders warned Trump that a protracted campaign could impact weapons stockpiles. Now, the Pentagon is burning through precision-guided missiles at an alarming rate.
The Industrial Collapse
Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged the disparity: Iran is “producing, by some estimates, over 100 of these missiles a month. Compare that to the six or seven interceptors that can be built a month”.
Trump’s response? On Truth Social, he claimed US munitions stockpiles “at the medium and upper medium grade” have “never been higher or better” and that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply”. He added: “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies.”
This is either ignorance or lying. Either way, Americans will pay the price.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) put it bluntly: “At some point, this becomes a math problem. How can we resupply air defense munitions? Where are they going to come from?”
The industrial base cannot keep up. The Pentagon is convening defense CEOs and demanding 2.5x to 4x production increases. Second- and third-tier suppliers cannot handle simultaneous surges across multiple weapons systems. Every interceptor fired at an Iranian drone is one less for a potential conflict with China.
The empire is overextended, and Iran has called the bluff. But the empire does not pay for its overextension. You do — with taxes you never consented to, for a war you never wanted, in service of a prophecy you almost certainly do not share.
You Are Paying for This: Your Taxes, Their Armageddon
Here is what that bluff costs — in dollars, in lives, in your children’s future.
The United States spends more on its military than the next ten countries combined. The annual defense budget exceeds $850 billion. That is your money — taken from your paycheck, borrowed from your children’s future, funneled into the machinery of death and destruction.
Your Paycheck at War
Every Tomahawk missile fired at Iran costs $2 million. Every interceptor launched to defend a base in Qatar costs $15 million. Every hour of flight time for a B-2 bomber costs $135,000. You are paying for all of it.
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The precise cost of the first days of war is still being calculated, but economists are already projecting the trajectory. One analysis estimates that if the conflict continues at its current intensity, the total cost could reach $210 billion. That is not a typo. That is $210 billion that could fund healthcare, education, infrastructure — instead, it will be sunk into missiles and flight time, with nothing to show but rubble, graves, and mourning.
Let that number land.
For context:
- That is more than the annual budget of the Department of Education.
- That is enough to provide free meals to every public school student for 23 years.
- That is enough to eliminate homelessness among veterans many times over.
- That is enough to cancel all student loan debt for 5 million Americans.
Instead, it will buy a crusade. And for what?
The men spending your money believe they are fulfilling prophecy. They are not trying to win a war. They are trying to trigger Armageddon. They believe the destruction of the world is something to welcome, not prevent. This is the crusade you never voted for, never wanted, and are now being forced to fund.
$210 billion. To bring about the end of everything.
When you look at your paycheck, remember: some of that money is paying for a commander to tell troops that Trump was “anointed by Jesus” to start the end of the world. Some of it is paying for missiles aimed at girls’ schools — 165 dead, all children — that cannot be replenished. Some of it is paying for a crusade dressed in secular language, run by true believers who have decided that your children’s future is acceptable collateral damage in their cosmic drama. You never asked for this. You never voted for this. But you are paying for it anyway.
The Pentagon is not just wasting your money. It is weaponizing it against your own survival.
The World Is Watching: Hegemony’s Moral Collapse
While the crusade we never wanted bleeds interceptors and your tax dollars, the West’s moral authority bleeds faster.
The Gaza Double Standard
Gaza exposed the hypocrisy. At a January meeting of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, speakers excoriated Western states for their “double standards on human rights” and efforts to “weaken the rule-based international order”.
Professor Ilan Pappé of Exeter University stated that support for Israel has exposed Western governments to “either indifference or complicity in the suffering of the Palestinian people”. The so-called “international legal order” collapsed in Gaza, as Western powers showed a “selective approach to blatant violations” of international law.
The Epstein Reckoning
If Gaza revealed the West’s external hypocrisy, the Epstein files exposed its internal rot.
In late January, the Department of Justice released over 3 million pages of documents tied to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. The files expose a network weaving through the corridors of power: former presidents, billionaires, British royalty. Allegations of sexual predation, including against minors, swirl around these elites.
Yet no new charges have been filed. The Department of Justice admitted to redaction errors, missed its deadline by six weeks, and stated it would bring no new charges. Victims’ names were exposed; powerful names were redacted. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called it “either gross incompetence or negligence”.
A YouGov survey found that 52 percent of Americans believe Trump is covering up Epstein’s crimes, and 85 percent agree that powerful elites helped Epstein exploit young girls and shielded him from justice.
As one analyst put it: “The Epstein files make one thing unmistakably clear: the West has lost any moral authority to lecture non-white societies about ‘superiority’”. In the Arab world, voices mock Western pretensions: if the US can’t police its own elites, it has no business dictating terms elsewhere.
The Global South watches. They see Gaza. They see the Epstein class. They see a crusade dressed in secular language, run by men who believe they are fulfilling prophecy while running out of missiles — all funded by taxpayers who never voted for any of it.
Western hegemony rested on moral authority. That authority is gone — squandered by crusaders who never asked the people they claim to represent whether they wanted any part of this.
The End Times: What “Armageddon” Actually Means
The Theology of Annihilation
The men running this war believe they are fulfilling prophecy. Christian nationalism teaches that end-times prophecy requires war in the Middle East. Hegseth and his fellow travelers believe they are instruments of divine will. Troops are being told their deaths serve a cosmic purpose.
Even if you believe this theology, the goal is the end of the world.
These men are not trying to win a war. They are trying to trigger Revelation. The “imminent return of Jesus Christ” means the destruction of everything — including the people they claim to be saving.
Weinstein warned: “The concept that Hegseth pushes is all of Christ for all of life.” Injecting Christian nationalism into a multi-racial, multi-religious military is “an absolute threat, an immediate threat, not a shift, but an immediate threat to the national security of our country and the world”.
There is no “good outcome” in this framework. There is only prophecy fulfilled, and the world consumed by fire.
Translate that into secular terms: these men are dangerous not because they believe in God, but because they believe God wants them to end the world — and they have nuclear weapons, a military, and your tax dollars to make it happen. They never asked if you wanted to be part of their prophecy. They simply decided your children’s future was acceptable collateral damage.
The End of Hegemony, or the End of Everything
The United States launched this war on lies — a war we never wanted, never voted for, and are now being forced to fund. They claimed Iran was stalling negotiations — while bombing them at the table. They claimed Iran sought nuclear weapons — while ensuring the bomb becomes Tehran’s only rational option. They claimed Iran wages holy war — while their own troops are told to fight for Armageddon.
The accusation was always a confession.
Hegseth’s “prophetic Islamist delusions” projection reveals the crusade at the heart of American power. This is not a war for security. It is a war for prophecy. It is not fought by realists, but by true believers who have convinced themselves that destroying Iran is God’s will — and that the destruction of the world is something to welcome, not prevent.
And you are paying for it.
Every missile, every interceptor, every hour of flight time — your money. Every commander telling troops that Armageddon is God’s plan — your money. Every true believer who believes he is fulfilling prophecy while running out of missiles — your money.
The war is unjust. It is unwise. It will bring about the end of something — either the end of western hegemony, which the world may quietly welcome, or the end of everything, which the true believers seem determined to deliver.
Call your representative. Ask them why they voted for a war powers resolution after the bombs fell instead of before. Ask them whose money they took. Ask them if they believe Armageddon is a sound military strategy. They will lie. But they will know that someone is watching.
The dog does not ask why it fights. But the master who believes he is fulfilling prophecy while spending your money to run out of missiles is not a master — he is a fool with your wallet in a room full of people who have finally learned to see him clearly. The crusade you never wanted will end one of two ways: with the collapse of American hegemony, or with the collapse of everything. The only question is whether you will stop him before he pulls the trigger.
