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For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal [fleshly]. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

The Apostle Paul

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sees himself as a crusader. He calls himself a Christian. He believes his faith instructs him to "kill the infidels." And as did the crusaders in the Middle Ages, Hegseth views the "infidels" primarily as the Muslim people. But Hegseth's "Christian" crusade goes well beyond that. If he were able to annihilate every Muslim on earth, he would then set his sights on anyone who does not share his heretical Christian Nationalist ideology.

With a "divine" mission to "kill, kill, kill" (Hegseth's words), there is no need and no room for rules of engagement. In fact, Hegseth calls the rules of engagement "stupid." There is no need and no room for Just War. There is no need and no room for international law. There is no need and no room for constitutional law. As Hegseth sees it, his wars are "anointed" by God.

Back in 2001 and 2003, GW Bush and the neocons in his administration justified the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by accusing the Muslims in those regions of being "religious fanatics." And in truth, the fanatics within Islam are almost exclusively subgroups within Sunni Islam—including the members of ISIS, ISIL, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, etc. You know, the Muslim fanatics that are supported by Donald Trump and the U.S. government, the ones that Trump helped to put in power in Syria. But they are rarely found (at least in large numbers) within Shia Islam.

Today, however, the "religious fanatics" are located in Washington, D.C., and in Christian Zionist evangelical churches, personified in Pete Hegseth.

Fanatics of any kind—religious or secular—who obtain political and military power quickly become war criminals and mass murderers. Pete Hegseth is no exception.

On the very first day of Trump's illegal war of aggression against Iran, Hegseth superintended over the massacre of 170 innocent little grade school girls between the ages of 6 and 12. In fact, this attack came only 5 minutes after the first attack, which murdered Iran's Supreme Leader.

The massacre of these little schoolgirls in Iran was the most horrendous massacre of civilians by American military forces since the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War in 1968, in which somewhere between 350 – 500 civilians (which always means mostly little children, women and elderly men) were murdered.

This atrocity in Iran would not have occurred had Hegseth not dismantled the rules of engagement. That's what the rules of engagement do: They prevent massacres of civilians such as happened in Iran.

Don't expect Pete Hegseth to lose any sleep over it, however. As with all fanatics, Hegseth has no conscience.

Making Hegseth's criminality ever more Draconian is the fact that Hegseth was warned by military brass to NOT eviscerate the military's rules of engagement.

Politico covers the story:

Top military officials warned the Pentagon unsuccessfully last year not to gut oversight offices that limit risk to civilian casualties and investigate responsibility for their deaths, such as the recent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed hundreds of children.

Then-Central Command chief Erik Kurilla and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown pushed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth not to slash the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and other similar initiatives at American command posts, according to Wes Bryant, the Pentagon's former chief of civilian harm assessments and two other people familiar with the matter.

Opponents of the move, which also included Adm. Christopher Grady — the former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs — argued that the staff were critical to preventing risks to civilian populations before U.S. strikes and to probing deadly Pentagon attacks, according to the people, and would ultimately save resources for military operations. Hegseth instead chose to reduce the number of employees working on the issue from 200 to less than 40.

The high level of opposition to the cuts, which has not been previously reported, hints at the tension between top military officials and their civilian leader over the rules of engagement in combat, which the Pentagon chief has called "stupid." It also comes as preliminary reports suggest the U.S. may have accidentally targeted the elementary school, which killed more than 170 students and is the largest U.S.-led killing of civilians in decades.

I question whether the incineration of those little girls was an accident. I say that because the school that Hegseth blew up was a private girl's school that catered specifically to IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) officer's children. The fact that the building was a grade school and not a military facility was known to the U.S. since at least 2016. And U.S. military leaders also knew that most of the children at the school were IRGC children. I find it very difficult to believe that this was a coincidence. 

The revelation of previous backlash also follows Hegseth's announcement this week that he would further cut the lawyers who advise commanders of an operation's legality, known as judge advocate generals. He already fired many of those Army, Navy, and Air Force lawyers in the first days of the administration.

The decision to dismantle the civilian casualty offices could intensify criticism as more details emerge about the school struck next to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps base in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli operation. Democrats have used the incident to call for Hegseth's resignation.

Hegseth should not only be removed from office, but he should also be arrested, imprisoned and tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Tensions within the Pentagon over the gutted offices are likely to continue.

"I do know that there are people, not a small amount of people inside the Pentagon itself, that are behind [civilian harm mitigation and response]," said Bryant, the former official.

"It said 'civilian protection,' and that's woke," Bryant said, referencing Hegseth's efforts to root out diversity and equity programs he believes undermines the military's core missions. "Ultimately, it was going to be cut."

Hegseth's bloodlust in the name of God is a reflection of his rejection of Christ's New Covenant. As with all Christian Zionists, they are stuck in the Old Testament. They see Israel and its puppet state, America, fighting wars against Muslims analogous to the Mosaic wars against the Amalekites and Canaanites.

I pause here to recognize that many people who read my columns may not be familiar with my oral messages. So, I pause here to urge readers to watch my four-part series on the subject which I am now addressing. The title of that series is: A Clinical Study Of The Destruction Of The Amalekites And The Old Covenant Laws Of War.

Here is Part One of that series.

Under Christ's New Covenant, Christians are commanded to testify to the "infidel" nations of the Gospel of Christ's redemption, mercy and forgiveness, NOT to kill and destroy them. Hegseth and his fellow Christian Zionists live and behave as if Jesus Christ never lived, never died on the Cross for our sins, never rose from the dead—thus fulfilling and abolishing the Old Covenant with Moses—never sent His Holy Spirit to baptize people of all nations, all races and all ethnicities into ONE body: the New Covenant Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Well, let me tell you: Neither Donald Trump nor Pete Hegseth nor John Hagee nor Robert Jeffress nor Franklin Graham is Moses. They didn't see a burning bush. And the only rivers they are turning to blood are the rivers containing the blood of slaughtered innocents that they murder in the fervor of their Zionist fanaticism. 

"The mullahs are desperate and scrambling," he [Hegseth] said at a recent Pentagon press briefing, referring to Iran's Shiite Muslim clerics. He later recited Psalm 144, a passage of Scripture that Jews and Christians share: "Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle."

Hegseth quotes King David in the 144th Psalm, but he ignores what King David said in Psalm 120:7, "I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war."

And, of course, he completely ignores the words of Jesus: "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9) And, "I say unto you, Love your enemies." (Matthew 5:44)

Hegseth also ignores the words of the Apostle Paul: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal [fleshly]." (II Corinthians 10:4) And "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood." (Ephesians 6:12)

I say to the unchurched world: The Christianity of Pete Hegseth is NOT the Christianity of the Bible.

Pete Hegseth is not only a war criminal; he is a heretic. He and the rest of America's Christian Zionists have alienated most of the world against the United States.

Republicans in Trump's cabinet and U.S. Congress need to act quickly to remove Trump and Hegseth from office before hundreds or thousands of America's young Soldiers and Marines are sent to their deaths in Iran.

Hegseth's crusade in his own sick mind needs to be relegated to a prison cell, where he can no longer murder innocent people and risk the imminent prospect of plunging America into global nuclear war.

© Chuck Baldwin

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