Secretary of War “Testosterone Pete,” wearing a “This is WAR” t-shirt, kicked off Sept. 19 a national military recruitment tour which he has dubbed “Send Me,” with a pep talk to Texas A&M university Cadets Corps. “Send Me” is taken from the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah. His message, as reported on the Department of War’s “Rapid Response” X account, ran as follows (all-caps in the original):

“This is our first stop on what we are calling the SEND ME TOUR. If you know your Book of Isaiah, Chapter 6, Verse 8, the Lord said, ‘Whom shall I send?’ Isaiah says, ‘Lord, I AM HERE. SEND ME...’ For 250 years of this country, there have been men and women who RAISED THEIR RIGHT HAND and said, ‘SEND ME.’ SEND ME TO GO FIGHT THE REDCOATS. SEND ME TO GO FIGHT THE COMMUNISTS. SEND ME TO GO FIGHT THE ISLAMISTS. AND YOU ARE SAYING, SEND ME TO GO FIGHT WHATEVER THREATS THREATEN OUR NATION.’”

US retired Col. Daniel Davis called out this barbarity as “repulsive, unAmerican, and unchristian,” in commenting on his X.

“This is Pete Hegseth, seeking monsters to slay, looking for a war to fight. It is a bastardization of Isaiah 6. That passage signifies a complete and total submission to GOD—not any civilian government, certainly not the Secretary of War. We are supposed to have an armed forces in order to DEFEND our country, our people, our way of life. This current secretary seeks to use the armed forces as an offensive tool to kill his opponents, as a primary tool of statecraft, whether they threaten us or not. It’s disgusting,” he added.

Diane Sare, independent candidate for President in 2028, posted a succinct comment under the DOW’s clip of Hegseth: “Send me to go and die for the Epstein pervert billionaires[?] No thanks!”