Pete Hegseth - American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free

There is not room in the country for any fifty-fifty American, nor can there be but one loyaltyto the Stars and Stripes.

Theodore Roosevelt

T ake a moment to consider your part in the miracle of the 2016 election; the history we made as sons and daughters of freedom. For the Left, that humiliating defeat strengthened their resolve to achieve their ultimate goal: erasing Americas soul, culture, and institutions. We are the ones standing in their wayand have been targeted for annihilation.

We the People must understand this moment. You feel it. I feel it. We all feel it. The other sidethe Leftis not our friend. We are not esteemed colleagues, nor mere political opponents. We are foes. Either we win, or they winwe agree on nothing else.

The United States has the top economy and military in the world, but our cultural and educational institutionsAmericas soulhave succumbed to leftist rot. Military might and worldly wealth alone are not enough to preserve our founding principles, nor are once-in-a-generation electoral miracles such as the 2016 election. Our future existence as sons and daughters of freedom requires the satisfaction of a single paramount objective: the categorical defeat of the Left. America cannot, and will not, survive otherwise.

This time in our history calls for an A MERICAN C RUSADE . Yes, a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.

One thousand years ago, after years of ceding land to conquering Muslim hordes, the pope ordered military action to save Europe. Deus vult (God wills it) was the rallying cry of Christian knights as they marched to Jerusalem. Two hundred and fifty years ago, as King George III exercised more power over the colonists in North America, they rebelled. Give me liberty or give me death! they exclaimed. America was born and then battle tested.

The most important rallying cry of our eraMake America Great Againcatalyzed a political miracle of similar proportion and consequence so shocking that it still confounds those who proclaimed it. Like crusaders and patriots past, Donald Trumps red hat rebellion demonstrates that unapologetically going on offense is the only tenable strategy for the defense of our republic. Surrounded by the Left, with the odds stacked against us, only a crusade will do.

Mobilized for victory, we will save the republic in 2020 and beyond. But the battle is not for the meek or the weak. Those who make excuses that distract from decisive political triumphsuch as petty grievances over President Trumps tweets, feigned civility standards, or stale, status quo thinkingare not worthy to populate the crusading ranks. We need informed, inspired, unapologetic patriots, and we need them now.

Lest we forget, the United States of America is the grandestand greatestfreedom experiment in human history. The most free, most fair, most tolerant, most equal, and most powerful. We should never, ever apologize for her. If you dont agree with that statement, at best you are utterly ignorant of human history; at worst, you are a willing enemy of freedomand America.

The Lefts 2016 calamity is our opportunity and therefore requires urgent, radical steps to win in 2020 and engrave that victory on the soul of America. As we embark on this noblest of causes, remember the plan the Left has for youutter annihilationand prepare yourself to lock shields with fellow Americans in the defense of our simple and sacred shared objective: freedom.

Lets begin. And lets get personal. Millions of patriotsincluding you and melove the founding ideals of America. But there are hordes of people within our borders (remember those?!) who dont share our allegianceand their ignorance and ideologies threaten Americas very survival. As such, we are two Americas; a house divided.

To begin our journey, it is necessary to demarcate the bitter division between America and the Left. To illustrate this, consider the lives and views of two immigrants from distant, war-torn lands: Samarra Omar and Somali Omar.

Having previously fled the tyranny of Saddam, Samarra Omaralong with his brother Bakr and father, Mr. Assadreturned to Iraq in 2003 to rebuild their life and fight Al Qaeda. I had the honor to fight alongside them in the battered city of Samarra in 2006. A decade later, Bakr and Omar earned the opportunity to immigrate legally to the United States and are now assimilated in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. Hereafter, Ill call my friend Texas Omar.

Somali Omar is a member of the United States Congress. Ilhan Omar came to America as a young girl, fleeing the civil war in Somalia. Following four years in a refugee camp in Kenya, she was granted asylum in the United States, eventually settling in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She graduated from high school there, attended college in North Dakota, and secured a prestigious policy fellowship at the University of Minnesota. A few years later, the people of Minnesota elected her to the state houseand then to Congress. Yet despite all that privilege, referring to her as Somali Omar still fits best.

Somali Omar has chosen to return our goodwill with grievances, not gratitude. She views her time in Somali as blissful, while criticizing the United States as racist, oppressive, and torturous. Unlike Texas Omar, Somali Omar did not choose AmericaAmerica chose her, from the squalor of a refugee camp in Kenya. We opened our doors and welcomed her. The state of Minnesota housed her, educated her, empowered her, enriched her, elevated her, and then elected her.

Through the lens of gratitude, America looks much different. Texas Omars victories on the battlefield, killing Al Qaeda terroristswho the delusional, hateful Somali Omar asserts are merely the product of Jewish-financed American imperialismearned his family a life in the land of liberty. Texas welcomed them as sons and daughters of freedom.

Theodore Roosevelt once stated, There is not room in the country for any fifty-fifty American, nor can there be but one loyaltyto the Stars and Stripes. My friend Texas Omar and his beautiful family embrace 100 percent Americanism. Somali Omar sees the land of opportunity much differently.