Ex-Army General Slams Hegseth for Pitching Iran War as a ‘Christian Crusade Against Islam’

Retired Army General Barry McCaffrey went off on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for being a “hysterical” yes-man to President Donald Trump who — along with the president — sounds like he is trying to launch a “Christian crusade against Islam” with the way he talks about the war against Iran.

McCaffrey shared his harsh assessment during an appearance on MS NOW’s The 11th Hour on Tuesday night. Host Stephanie Ruhle asked the general about a Washington Post article earlier in the day titled “Hegseth’s boastful claims about Iran war contradict reality, officials say,” which reported Hegseth is giving overly-optimistic war assessments to Trump.

“Pete is not speaking truth to the president,” one unnamed administration official told WaPo. “As a result, the president is out there repeating misleading information.”

McCaffrey told Ruhle this was a “deadly serious” issue that cannot be overlooked.

“Scretary of Defense Hegseth been volatile, hysterical. He’s desperate to keep his office. His rhetoric, along with the president of the United States, makes it sound like we’re running a Christian crusade against Islam,” McCaffrey said.

He continued “I don’t think there was a balanced set of policy options and hashing out the repercussions. The president of United States drives all the policy. It’s policy by whim, by dictate.”

The aforementioned Washington Post report said Hegseth’s “triumphant rhetoric” during the war has stood in contrast to that of Gen. Dan “Raizin” Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also downplayed the daring rescue of a second Air Force crew member who was shot down in Iran last week, saying it was a “chaotic but successful” operation that showed “Hegseth’s repeated claims of air dominance come with serious caveats.”

McCaffrey added he believed the media and the judicial branch haven’t “caved” to Trump, unlike Congress. He said those are the “only two barriers to Trump running unconstrained,” before pointing to the president’s Easter morning threat against Iran to “open the F*ckin'” Strait of Hormuz or suffer the consequences.

“That was nuts behavior,” McCaffrey said.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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