Armageddon in the Officer’s Mess: Inside the Military Chaos Trump Is Unleashing
Donald Trump and mouthpiece Pete Hegseth have reawakened Christian Nationalism in our military—and the consequences could be catastrophic
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By David Shuster
There are many ways to start a war, but invoking the apocalypse is unique, even by the generous standards of American political theater. Yet that is reportedly the rhetoric now wafting through parts of the United States military amidst Trump’s war on Iran.
In a story first reported on Substack by investigative journalist Jonathan Larsen, more than 200 service members have filed complaints to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), alleging that unit commanders explained the Iran war not merely as a strategic necessity or a matter of national defense, but as a “holy war.”
One officer was even more celestial and reportedly invoked the Book of Revelation. The officer stated the conflict might usher in Armageddon, that cheerful little biblical skirmish which, in some evangelical circles, is believed to pave the way for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
In plainer English, the troops were allegedly told that the strikes on Iran are a “holy war” and might end the world.
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On the one hand, you have to admire the efficiency of the idea. Why bother with complicated briefings about geopolitics, oil shipping lanes, deterrence theory, or nuclear proliferation when you can simply inform the troops that the Almighty is running the operation? Strategy is unnecessary when Providence has already issued the orders.
This sort of talk would be comical if it were not coming from people with the authority to command bombers, warships, and battalions of heavily armed young Americans.
The United States military—like every federal institution, last time I checked—was established to defend the Constitution. Not to stage-manage the prophecies of the Apostle John.
But the line between those missions seems to be blurring. Journalist Larsen reports there have been complaints to the MRFF from 50 different military installations. Fifty.
To be fair, America has long had a weakness for Christian nationalism.
Still, there is a difference between politicians delivering revival-meeting oratory on the campaign trail and military commanders, perhaps inspired by DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth, delivering it to troops firing missiles, dropping bombs, and following orders.
Soldiers, sailors, and airmen do not sit in pews when they receive their instructions. They stand at attention.
When a commander tells subordinates that a war may be part of God’s plan, he or she is not merely offering a private meditation on theology. That commander is speaking from a position of authority in which disagreement carries professional risk. The devout Christian may nod along happily. The Jew, the Muslim, the atheist, or the merely skeptical may feel rather less enthusiastic about joining a campaign framed as a step toward the Rapture.
The United States military contains all of these people. It is one of the most religiously diverse institutions in the country. The cohesion of our armed forces depends on a simple compact: every service member serves the Constitution first, and whatever gods they acknowledge—or decline to acknowledge—are strictly their own affair.
Break that compact and you invite trouble.
Unfortunately, the same theological exuberance appears to be spreading beyond U.S. military bases. Recently, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, denounced Iran as a nation guided by what he called a “misguided religion.”
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One could almost hear the ghosts of medieval crusaders cheering from the House gallery.
Such language may play well in certain corners of America. But it carries a whiff of something older and more dangerous than mere partisanship. Once a conflict is framed as a dispute between religions rather than nations, compromise becomes suspect and diplomacy begins to look like apostasy.
History offers endless evidence of how such stories end. They generally involve large numbers of troops and civilians killed and very little enlightenment.
The founders of the United States understood this well. Many of them were skeptical men who had observed the bloody wreckage of Europe’s sectarian wars. Their solution was not complicated: keep the government secular and let the churches handle the business of faith and salvation.
That arrangement has worked reasonably well for nearly two and a half centuries. The United States has fought many wars but has generally refrained from presenting them as rehearsals for the end of days.
Such religious restraint needs to continue.
War, after all, is already a sufficiently grim enterprise without the addition of eschatology. Young Americans flying over Iran or sent to patrol the increasingly dangerous Strait of Hormuz deserve to know they are risking their lives for a purpose grounded in national security, not for the dubious honor of advancing someone else’s interpretation of Revelation.
There is nothing wrong with a soldier praying before battle. Many have done so, and many always will.
But the prayer should come from the soldier, not from the operations order.
Armageddon may hold a certain appeal for those who enjoy imagining the universe wrapped up in a blaze of divine fireworks. But it is a poor substitute for military strategy—and an even worse justification for sending Americans into war.
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When I was in the army, the prevailing ethos was that your duty is to the Constitution, the soldier on your left, and the soldier on your right. Whatever their beliefs may be. Because if you don't have that, you don't have an army. You have a rumble. You don't have to look lie those two soldiers, sound like them, pray like them, or even LIKE them. But they're your responsibility, and you are theirs. Thats' the only way you all survive.
Framing the Iran war as a holy war, one that adheres to a minority religious view of end times prophecy, violates the Constitution’s separation of church and state. Military officers are obliged to not comply with unconstitutional orders. At the very least, the religious right’s love of religion-based exemptions, even in the military, means that military members who don’t share that Apocalyptic view should be exempt from participating in a holy war.