Iran, however, is not the only country framing the Iran war in religious terms. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is invoking God as being on the American side, while claiming that Iran is “hell-bent on prophetic Islamist delusions.”
When asked directly if he saw the war in religious terms, Hegseth basically said yes, preaching at length his own version of a militarized Christian doctrine.
PETE HEGSETH: The providence of our Almighty God is there protecting those troops. And we’re committed to this mission.
“That entire regime is led by radical clerics who don’t make geopolitical decisions,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio adds. “They make decisions on the basis of theology, their view of theology, which is an apocalyptic one that has to be taken very seriously.”
…🙄
In August 1996, Osama Bin Laden issued his own 11,500 word “fatwa” and declared holy war against US forces in the Arabian peninsula. “Your blood has been spilt in Palestine and Iraq, and the horrific image of the massacre in Qana in Lebanon are still fresh in people’s minds,” he said. The declaration followed the June 25th truck bomb attack at Khobar towers in Saudi Arabia, where 19 US military personnel were killed and over 500 were injured.
That November, the still obscure bin Laden was interviewed and asked why there hadn’t yet been attacks in response. He replied, “If we wanted to carry out small operations, it would have been easy to do so after the statements, but the nature of the battle requires qualitative operations that affect the adversary, which obviously requires good preparation.”
Two years later, in February 1998, bin Laden issued a second fatwa, calling on Muslims to kill Americans anywhere in the world, a shift from focusing solely on Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states. This fatwa inspired a new generation of fighters, including the generation that undertook the 9/11 attacks.
my first thought as well
Speaking of Saudi Arabia, now seems like just as good a time as any to remind the reality based community of the crown prince’s comments regarding 9/11 in 2025 when he was invited to the White House by Trump:
The moment he was asked about Saudi Arabia’s role, the polished veneer cracked. After offering a few seconds of hollow sympathy, he shifted into a lecture on Osama bin Laden’s motivations and admonished Americans to “focus on reality.” For the thousands of families who lost loved ones on 9/11—and for the investigators, intelligence officers and bipartisan lawmakers who spent more than two decades uncovering the truth—his comments were not just dismissive. They were offensive.
Then came the most alarming claim: that Saudi Arabia was actually the victim because Al Qaeda supposedly targeted the U.S.-Saudi relationship. That is not reality. It is gaslighting. It ignores a substantial body of evidence showing that Saudi government officials—paid through the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and stationed in American cities—provided support to the hijackers before the attacks.
For years, the kingdom’s strategy was simple: deny, deflect and make the problem go away through political pressure. That ended on August 28, 2025, when federal Judge George Daniels rejected Saudi Arabia’s latest attempt to escape accountability and concluded after 13 months of careful review that the record collectively supports a determination that the Saudi government “knowingly, or at least with deliberate indifference, participated in supporting the [911] hijackers “terrorist activity.”
And even thought it’s doesn’t fit the reality Hegseth is trying to create, probably a good time to also remember what actually preceded the U.S. attacking Iran to “help defend Israel in this holy war.”
Push from Saudis, Israel helped move Trump to attack Iran
The Saudi crown prince, actually preemptively lobbied for Trump to attack Iran multiple times in the month leading up to the attack.
Because it’s in the Bible…?
If Iran attacks US soil, it was the US attacking itself and blaming it on Iran so they can create more laws taking rights from citizens
4 min video summarizing Putin’s rise to power: Russian apartment bombings led to Putin’s rise
Seems to oddly mirror a lot of what’s happening now. Especially if you think of Trump as dark Yeltsin. (I could be totally misremembering this, but I thought despite having an alcohol problem, Yeltsin had some legitimate redeeming qualities as well?) Regardless, it’s hard not to notice the similarities when it comes to an absurd level of incompetence that almost makes it seem like failure was the goal the entire time.
I always assumed (and still think most likely) Vance or Rubio will be Trump’s successor. Intellectually, they both definitely seem to fit the bill, but more and more I’m also starting to see some glaring similarities between Hegseth and Putin.
This seems very Putinesque, or at least the manufactured version of Putin made in America. Especially as Hegseth becomes the face leading an American holy war, hoping to rile the evangelical base despite Trump’s plummeting approval rating.
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