this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2026
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Who exactly has been saying, officially on behalf of the U.S. military, that this is the U.S. military's goal for the war?
According to reports, a lot of military commanders
https://jonathanlarsen.substack.com/p/us-troops-were-told-iran-war-is-for
Sure, but were they speaking officially on behalf of the U.S. military, or were they just expressing their own (distressingly commonly held) view?
When are military personel not talking officially? ...have you seen Sen. Kelly prosecution by trump-hegseth-dptOfWar, they claim retired military personel do not have free speech, aka they are always bound to speak officially. So, I ask again, when are military personel not talking officially?
When they are sharing their own viewpoint and not the official viewpoint of the military as an organizational whole.
Actually, what they are trying to charge him for is sedition for encouraging troops to disobey orders, which is even worse (nonsense) than charging him merely for speaking unofficially.
"Herr Colonel and dozens of other commanders did say ze war was to exterminate ze jews and dominate ze world, but maybe it's just zeir own personal feelings and surely not ze fuhrer's intent"
I think it is much more likely that Trump enjoys the power trip that comes from bullying the weak than that he is specifically out to start a holy war, and at the end of the day the goal of the U.S. military is to do whatever he says, no matter what they personally think about it.
Since when has the military ever officially and explicitly stated their actual intentions
According to the person I was responding to, this is exactly what they are doing:
https://newrepublic.com/post/207270/military-leaders-iran-war-donald-trump-jesus-armageddon
"By Monday evening, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, was “inundated” with complaints, receiving more than 110 grievances from U.S. military personnel stationed at dozens of sites across the Middle East, reported independent journalist Jonathan Larsen."
Definitely not the idea of just a few coocky officers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/03/us-israel-iran-war-christian-rhetoric
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/troops-being-told-to-prepare-for-armageddon-in-iran_n_69a6ffe3e4b076ac5d63c82c
https://asiatimes.com/2026/03/us-troops-were-told-iran-war-is-for-armageddon-return-of-jesus/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-iran-armageddon-second-coming-complaint-b2931579.html
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-troops-told-iran-war-anointed-jesus-bring-armageddon-watchdog-says
https://www.commondreams.org/news/iran-armageddon-military
https://metro.co.uk/2026/03/04/us-soldiers-told-iran-conflict-gods-plan-trigger-armageddon-27220172/