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The Enemy Within
The AP has a disturbing report about Defense Secretary nominee Major Pete Hegseth. They believe that the intelligence they have uncovered should be disqualifying, and are using their immense reach and influence. Their own words:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, the Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host nominated by Donald Trump to lead the Department of Defense, was flagged as a possible “Insider Threat” by a fellow service member due to a tattoo on his bicep that’s associated with white supremacist groups.
Hegseth, who has downplayed the role of military members and veterans in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and railed against the Pentagon’s subsequent efforts to address extremism in the ranks, has said he was pulled by his District of Columbia National Guard unit from guarding Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. He’s said he was unfairly identified as an extremist due to a cross tattoo on his chest.
This week, however, a fellow Guard member who was the unit’s security manager and on an anti-terrorism team at the time, shared with The Associated Press an email he sent to the unit’s leadership flagging a different tattoo reading “Deus Vult” that’s been used by white supremacists, concerned it was an indication of an “Insider Threat.”
The report includes a heavily redacted memo identifying the risk represented by Major Hegseth to this great nation and our armed sources, documenting the tattoos mentioned above. It is signed by a master sergeant, a top enlisted rank.
I think everyone here knows what the cross means, but some of you may not know “Deus Vult”, which means “God Wills It.” That alarms our new military and the AP, and I suspect it should. From what I have seen, they are not the sort to seek out the sacraments of Confession and Absolution, and thereby find salvation. I hope that when he is Defense Secretary of the United States of America, sworn to protect and preserve the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, that he takes appropriate measures to rid us of these assaults against our nation and our values from internal enemies.
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Deus vult == God wills (it)
I started reading Hegseth’s The War on Warriors today. Excellent so far.
Thanks for the save. It’s been a day.
I do not like tattoos, but are there any symbols used for anything that can not be twisted to appear to support SOMETHING objectionable? And don’t people often get tattoos drunk? Can’t people find something real to complain about?
One of my carpool mates when I was assigned to HQMC had several tattoos. He said that all were alcohol-related incidents.
Today, however, it’s not the case that most tattooees are drunk when they get them. Many are the result of serious deliberation.
Quod vult Deus = What God wills.
Quodvultdeus = name of a Church Father.
Carthage! After all of that time plotting to destroy it, they couldn’t resist the perfect location so they rebuilt it as a Roman city. I am hoping that is a name he took and not one that his parents gave him.
Here’s an almost too-detailed rundown of all Major Pete’s tattoos: Mapping Pete Hegseth’s tattoos: the Christian ink that got him kicked off Biden’s National Guard team. This one, in which the AP report is incorporated by reference via JD Vance’s blistering retort, seems to imply that what got Hegseth kicked off the Biden detail is the Jerusalem (Crusaders’) Cross which is tattooed on his right chest. In a world where everything has to be represented in pictographs (think IKEA instructions) because so few people can read actual letters, this makes sense to me. I can imagine the “Cross” being really scary to people who would have trouble deciphering “D.V.” let alone knowing what it means.**)
In hoc signo vinces. I don’t think that phrase is part of Hegseth’s tattoo oeuvre anywhere. Probably just as well.
**The term, whether written, “D.V.” or spoken, “DeeVee” long ago lost most of its religious connotation in the UK, where it’s regularly tacked on to conversation with the intent to express fervent hope in an anticipated outcome: “We should be setting off to Cornwall for this year’s summer holiday at about 6AM DeeVee.”
Might as well see them in situ:
(Double post)
See there? Along the forearm? That’s another far right symbol!
First published by noted white supremacist Benjamin Franklin in 1754.
(Is there anyone working at the Associated Press that isn’t a window-licking millennial?)
No.
I’m thinking the space for the AP in the White House Press Room could be better allocated. Other names come to mind, as well.
Those same crazy Leftists kicked out military members with Betsy Ross and Gadsden flags. We really need to undo all that Marxist and Communist infiltration the Democrats have brought to our institutions. What’s woke is broke.
Very subversive; to the leftist mindset.
Yeah, my daughters were soberly planned. Alcohol may have been involved in getting up enough courage to defy me, but not in the design or planning.
The Biden admin would panic and reject Christian symbolism. Figures.
The people who will get upset by this also say that every single white person is racist anyway, so what does it matter what tattoos they have?
I have read the chapter where he writes about his religious tattoo. It is a pretty enlightening and bad indictment of the woke environment. They can bring it up at the hearing and it will only grow support for him.
I supported Hegseth in a comment thread on NRO. Some toady in the comments disagreed with me and said I had no idea about what the DOD does. Last I checked he hadn’t replied to my reply to that. I’m getting fed up with their stuff these days. I checked my stack on the sofa and I have 12 issues piled up that I haven’t read. Heck, they had Hegseth on a cruise to speak in seminars on military topics. He is smart.
Hegseth’s job will be to root out the poisonous spawns of Marxist Critical Theory. He will have many friends inside and outside of the services to do so. If he is successful, recruitment will improve. I don’t expect it to improve fully because of the damage the left has done. People know a new president will be elected in four years. This is an example of an outside friend that is obviously getting tips from inside friends. It is copied from an email I received:
Also, remember that there are two chains to the president. Hegseth will lead the operational chain. The real fireworks will be in the other chain, the advisory chain populated by active duty general officers. They exist to advise the president but have expanded their power over the operational chain of command. You know them as the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The services will try to keep those spots filled with lefties who will block Trump. I’m betting Trump will have none of that this time around. I’m also betting that Trump will reset the Chairman’s role and that is what they really fear. I’m hoping my fellow vets here will weigh in to add to or counter what I think. I could be wrong but doubt it. If I am wrong, I want to know.
There’s an old saying:
“A tattoo is a permanent reminder of a temporary state of mind.”
Allahu akbar!
Now brand me a terrorist. Oh wait, sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Where is the face palm emoji?
Screw it, I’m getting the same tattoo.
I have one tattoo. It’s a tattoo of Snoopy dancing. It’s a permanent reminder of a temporary state of mind that I’d like to be a permanent state of mind.
Was the commentator who angered you a NR staffer, or just some rando off the internet?
You know who else isn’t the sort to seek out these sacraments? The hundreds of thousands in our old and “new” military who practice religions that don’t do “Confession” or “Absolution.” And atheists, of course, for whom—to put it mildly—“salvation” is really not a priority. Perhaps the DOD should investigate the religious affiliations of prospective employees before hiring them. I’m sure that would please our new masters.
Can’t have those in the military. Nosir!
I expect Hegseth to be confirmed, and I think that’s a good thing. I think he’s exactly what we need.
Contrary to the ubiquitous anti-merit orthodoxy, the strength of our military is not in its diversity. Rather, it’s in its ability to function as an integrated, well-trained, well-equipped fighting force. The current fashion of simultaneously vilifying normal American males while celebrating fetishistic oddballs is counter-productive in most contexts, but dangerously wrong-minded in the contexts of our military.
Had Harris won, I’m sure we’d have continued down this self-destructive path, digging a hole in which our adversaries would be happy to bury us. Fortunately that didn’t happen. Hegseth will have a big job ahead of him. I wish him well.
Deus vult seems rather appropriate for a soldier. The hissy-fit class can always find something to be “outraged” about.