Make the crusade great again
In his book American Crusade (2020), Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defence, included a chapter entitled ‘Make the Crusade Great Again’. On his arm, he sports a Deus Vult (God wills it) tattoo, a rallying cry of the First Crusade in 1096. It is also the closing sentence of his book.
Hegseth has a cross and sword tattooed on his arm representing a New Testament verse (Matthew 10:34): “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword”.
During his confirmation hearing as Defence Secretary, Hegseth said: “...when President Trump chose me for this position, the primary charge he gave me was to bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defence.
Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defence. Photo: AFP“He, like me, wants a Pentagon laser-focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards and readiness. That’s it. That is my job...
“Warfighting and lethality will be our only focus.”
In The Lessons of History (1968), Will and Ariel Durant wrote: “Democracy... has not yielded to dictatorship at home. But if war continues to absorb and dominate it, or if the itch to rule the world requires a large military establishment and appropriation, the freedoms of democracy may one by one succumb to the disciplines of arms and strife.
“If race or class war divides us into hostile camps, changing political argument into blind hate, one side or the other may overturn the hustings with the rule of the sword.
“If our economy of freedom fails to distribute wealth as ably as it has created it, the road to dictatorship will be open to any man who can persuasively promise security to all, and a martial government, under whatever charming phrases, will engulf the democratic world.”
“I am your voice. I alone can fix it.” – Donald Trump rally, July 22, 2016.
“I am your warrior. I am your justice. I am your retribution.” – Donald Trump rally, March 17, 2023.
John Guillaumier – St Julian’s
What’s this?
The US or its people may not realise this, but to many people out there, many of the recent outbursts of that country’s new president are coming over as simple expressions of some new colonialist mentality.
Claims over Panama territory (an independent state) i.e. the Channel, over Greenland (or is it just their natural assets that are wanted?), over some form of post-war Gaza, and elsewhere... these are making many people think twice about the future of the US’s role both domestically and in the bigger world.
I suppose there is nothing wrong with having a MAGA (Make America Great Again) vision. Indeed, the country has to continue working hard to really become that.
But it certainly comes over as bad foreign policy to propagate a populistic mindset which suggests that helping countries that one perceives as not operating in the ‘right’ manner can only be done by simply taking them, or their assets, over. Indeed it is part of what Russia is coming over as wanting to do.
What’s this? Where do we all go from here?
John Consiglio – Birkirkara