Writes Laurence Vance, "Here are the things that Pete Hegseth should have said about the military. Anything less is just death and destruction as usual with a little more masculinity and a little less wokeness:

The military will no longer fight wars that are not constitutionally declared.

The military will no longer serve as the president’s personal attack force.

The military will no longer police the world.

The military will no longer fight unjust wars.

The military will no longer make widows and orphans.

The military will no longer carry out reckless, belligerent, and meddling foreign policy.

The military will no longer station troops all over the world.

The military will stop helping to create terrorists, insurgents, and militants.

The military will stop going where they have no business going.

The military will no longer invade other countries.

The military will no longer fight unnecessary wars.

The military will no longer pretend to defend our freedoms.

The military will close all of its foreign...

"In the personal identification documents of subjects of the Russian Empire, there was not a column [for] nationality—there was none. In the Soviet passport there was, but in the Russian one—there was not. But what was there? “Religious faith.” There was a common value, a religious value, association with Eastern Christian religion, with Orthodoxy… There were other values, but this was the defining one: which values do you share?

"That’s why, even today, it doesn't matter to us whether a person is from the east, west, south, or north. If they share our values, they’re one of us."

-- Vladimir Putin

"What we see in Africa today is a kind of silent genocide or silent, brutal, savage war that is occurring in the shadows and all too often ignored by the international community… Christians are going to be targeted and destroyed…. That jihadist groups are in a position to take over not one, not two, but several countries in Africa – take over the whole country or most of several countries – is dangerous.

"It's very dangerous for the national security of the United States let alone the security of the poor people who are there – Christians or Muslims or whoever they are… [The goal of these jihadist groups is] eliminating Christian communities… [Muslims are] given a choice: ‘either join us or you too will face killing and annihilation.’ Christians, of course, are not going to be asked to join. Christians are going to be targeted and destroyed."

-- Former U.S. diplomat Alberto Miguel Fernandez