Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes “Crusader Cross”

An official U S military social media account on Monday shared a photo collage that included a symbol long affiliated with extremist groups and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth In a post on X trumpeting the deployment of troops to the Caribbean U S Southern Command or SOUTHCOM shared an image that prominently displayed a so-called Jerusalem cross on the helmet of a masked commando The Jerusalem cross also dubbed the Crusader cross for its roots in Medieval Christians holy wars in the Middle East is not inherently a symbol of extremism It has however become popular on the right to symbolize the march of Christian civilization with anti-Muslim roots that made it into something of a logo for the U S war on terror Tattoos of the cross a squared-off symbol with a pattern of repeating crosses have appeared on the bodies of people ranging from mercenaries hired by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to Hegseth himself Now the symbol has reared its head again to advertise President Donald Trump s military buildup against Venezuela an overwhelmingly Catholic country and boat strikes in the Caribbean U S military forces are deployed to the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility in endorsement of OpSouthernSpear DeptofWar-directed operations and POTUS' priorities to disrupt illicit drug trafficking and protect the homeland pic twitter com vLvg fQ Lx U S Southern Command Southcom December As with all things Trump it s a continuation with particular escalation and then a transformation into spectacle disclosed Yale University historian Greg Grandin whose work focuses on U S empire in Latin America The social media post came amid rising debate over a series of strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela dubbed Operation Southern Spear Read Our Complete Coverage License to Kill Hegseth is alleged to have ordered a so-called double-tap strike a follow-up attack against a debilitated boat that killed survivors clinging to the wreckage for around minutes The U S has carried out strikes since the campaign began in September killing a total of people The Pentagon s press office declined to comment on the use of the Jerusalem cross referring questions to SOUTHCOM But in a reply to the X post on Monday Hegseth s deputy press secretary Joel Valdez signaled his approval with emojis of a salute and the American flag In a announcement to the Intercept SOUTHCOM spokesperson Steven McLoud denied that the post implied any religious or far-right message The graphic you re referring to was an illustration of facility members in a ready posture during Operation SOUTHERN SPEAR McLoud narrated The Intercept There is no other communication intent for this image The original image of the masked facility member appears to have come from an album published online by the Pentagon that depicts a training exercise by Marines aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Caribbean Sea in October The photo depicting the cross however was removed from the album after commentators on social media pointed out its origins Amanda Saunders a spokesperson for the Defense Visual Information Distribution Utility the Pentagon-run photo agency mentioned she was unable to comment directly but forwarded the request to the Marine unit involved in the exercise Content on DVIDS is published and archived directly by the registered units she noted so we don t have control over what is posted or removed nor are we able to comment on those decisions Hegseth and the Cross The Jerusalem cross s popularity on the right has surged in part thanks to featuring in various media including the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven and video games according to Matthew Gabriele a professor of medieval studies at Virginia Tech and a scholar of Crusader iconography It supports the rhetoric of defense of homeland It supports the rhetoric of defense of homeland Gabriele informed The Intercept because the crusaders in the right s understanding were waging a defensive war against enemies trying to invade Christian lands The symbol s position of prominence in official military communications is just the latest example of a trollish extremism by the Trump administration s press teams which have made a point of reveling in the cruelty wrought on its perceived enemies at home and abroad or owning the libs Related Organization Leader at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites Belongs to Anti- Jihad Motorcycle Club Has Crusader Tattoos Monday s post may also be intended as Hegseth putting his thumb in the eye of the Pentagon s old guard Hegseth s embrace of the symbol in the form of a gawdy chest tattoo once stymied however temporarily his ambitions in the military Folling the January insurrection according to Hegseth and reporting by the Washington Post Hegseth was ordered to stand down rather than deploy with his National Guard unit ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden The decision to treat Hegseth as a achievable insider threat came after a someone flagged a photo of a shirtless Hegseth to military brass according to the Washington Post I joined the Army in because I demanded to serve my country Extremists attacked us on and we went to war Hegseth wrote The War on Warriors his memoir Twenty years later I was deemed an extremist by that very same Army Hegseth was hardly chastened by the episode and has since gotten more tattoos with more overt anti-Muslim resonance including the Arabic word word for infidel which appeared on his bicep sometime in the past several years It s accompanied by another bicep tattoo of the Latin words Deus vult or God wills it yet another slogan associated with the Crusades and repurposed by extremist groups The use of the image to advertise aggressive posturing in a majority-Christian region like Latin America may seem odd at first glance In the context of renewed U S focus on Latin America however it s a potent symbol of the move of military action from the Middle East to the Western Hemisphere They re globalizing the Monroe Doctrine The post comes on the heels of the release of the Trump s National Precaution Strategy a -page document outlining the administration s foreign-policy priorities that explicitly compared Trump s stance to the Monroe Doctrine the turn-of-the-century guidelines of U S dominance in Latin America in opposition to colonialism by other foreign powers Grandin the Yale historian described the document as a vision of global dominance based on a model of great-powers competition that can lead to immense instability They re globalizing the Monroe Doctrine Grandin explained I m no fan of the hypocrisy and arrogance of the old liberal international order but there s something to be commented for starting from a first principle of shared interests which does keep great conflict at bay to a few degree The post Official Propaganda for Caribbean Military Buildup Includes Crusader Cross appeared first on The Intercept