There’s no mystery to Pete Hegseth. The secretary of Defense prefers tight-fitting suits and pocket squares with the American flag on them. He bears a Jerusalem cross tattoo in honor of the Crusades. Another Crusade reference, the phrase “Deus vult,” or “God wills it,” appears on his bicep. On his forearm, there is a sword inside the outline of a cross, and the word “Yeshua,” or Jesus, marks the blade in Hebrew letters. He projects bellicosity before he opens his mouth. When he does open his mouth, whether to defend our war on Iran or a different violation of international law, he becomes even more obvious. Iran’s “mullahs” are “scrambling,” he said at the Pentagon this month. Then he quoted Psalm 144: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” In his own mind, he is a modern-day Templar knight, and he is here to carry out God’s mission on Earth.

Through the will of God or some other, more infernal mechanism, Hegseth now occupies a position of consequence, just in time for a new Crusade. The war on Iran is wish fulfillment for an entire class of warmongers, including Hegseth. Within this world, Iran has become a bête noire, an all-consuming obsession that, for some, has a religious dimension. An Islamic regime like Iran is a spiritual foe, not just a security threat. For Hegseth, who writes and speaks of himself as an enemy of Islam, the war is an opportunity to score a blow for Christ.

In his book American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free, Hegseth demands “a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.” Donald Trump is the nominal head of that effort; men like Hegseth are the muscle. “Following the lead of President Trump and beyond, American........

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