The caliphate is here: Glenn reacts to the state of the ever-crumbling Middle East

June 16, 2014

The Glenn Beck Program

On Monday’s Glenn Beck Program at 5pm ET on TheBlaze TV, Glenn will be digging up some of the chalkboards and infographics he drew up during his Fox News days to break down what is currently unfolding in Syria, Iraq, and throughout the Middle East. Glenn has been talking about likelihood of an Islamic caliphate, or state, for a number of years, and now, as Baghdad hangs in the balance, it looks like the rest of the media is taking notice. On radio this morning, Glenn offered an in-depth look at the situation on the ground and the United States’ options and interests.

Because of the life that has already been lost fighting Islamic extremists in Iraq, Pat was frank in his explanation of why he would like to see American troops on the ground in Baghdad.

“Got to send 5,000 to 10,000 troops back in there,” Pat said. “You have to defend it, beat this back. You have to go all out and kill these guys. They are bloodthirsty murders, the worst of the worst. What has the last twelve years been about?”

“You know what it's been about,” Glenn interjected. “It's been about control, power, and manipulation. It is about building a base there in Iraq.”

“[But] you are going to lose that,” Pat added. “It just falls into the hands of these dirt bags.”

While Glenn recognizes that it is nearly impossible to reconcile the idea that the sacrifice made in Iraq was for naught, he absolutely will not support the deployment of American military personnel. In fact, he “hopes to God we detonate” we detonate the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

“When we were at CNN, we started looking into the Baghdad embassy… It was estimated [to cost] over $1 billion at the time, and there were no pictures of this. No one was talking about it… It’s bigger than all of Vatican City,” Glenn explained. “When we were on CNN, I started showing pictures of the ground of what they were… starting to build. I said what are we doing?”

It didn’t take long, however, for Glenn and his producers to get word from CNN brass telling them to stop talking.

“The Bush Administration called CNN and said, ‘Tell him to stop talking about the embassy.’ I got pressure from the network to stop talking. Imagine. CNN didn't like President [Bush], and CNN was telling us, ‘Hey, you know, you might want to stop talking. This is going to hurt our troops,’” Glenn continued. “There was no reason why we should stop. So we continued to talk about the embassy. There's something wrong with that embassy… I don't know if it's an NSA listening post or what it is. But that's not a normal run-of-the-mill embassy. Period.”

Glenn might not have been able to uncover what was going on at the embassy, he is confident we should not be putting more American soldiers in harms’ way.

“So what are we doing over there? I don't know. I will tell you this: I won't support sending another troop over there,” he said emphatically. “You cannot give freedom to people who don't understand it or don't want it. We are not the policemen of Iraq. We are not.”

For those who argue that we must weaken the ISIS leadership before the set their sights on the U.S., Glenn believes it is already too late for that. As a result, he believes we are best suited scaling back and strengthening our military as much as possible.

“They are coming here anyway. We are already letting them in over our southern border,” Glenn said. “We say, ‘Look, the world has changed dramatically. It is time for us to pull back and strengthen ourselves – strengthen our family, strengthen our communities, strengthen our schools and hospitals… Pull back and strengthen the United States of America because a storm is coming. Pull the fleet back in and reset because a storm is coming.”

If you are a longtime listener, you will remember that Glenn started talking about the desire and possibility of a caliphate for quite some time. Over the weekend, other media outlets finally started taking notice of what is happening. This morning, Pat put together a compilation of many in the media lambasting Glenn for talking about the danger of a caliphate several years ago.

Ultimately, Glenn reiterated how important it is for the U.S. to stay out of this conflict. He went so far as to draft a short speech President Obama should give to explain to the world where we stand:

The United States of America is 100% behind the nation of Israel. We put our chips behind the nation of Israel. We are not going to send ground troops, but they have a right to defend themselves, and all options, yes, the nuclear option is on the table for them. Whatever they have to do to defend themselves, the United States of America backs them.

To the rest of you: We did our best. I'm sorry to those who are being beheaded. I feel really horrible that that is happening. We tried. We did our best, but we cannot be the one that carries all the water. We have issues here at home. Right now our troops need to be on our borders here in the United States of America because we have MS-13 gang members being sent in. We need our troops on our border, and they are coming home.

I want you to know: America is not going asleep. America is not going to just sit here and lick her wounds. America is going to become strong again. We are not going to make the mistakes of the past. We are not going to push out. We are not going to send our troops everywhere. But I will tell you this: If you screw with us, we will pound you into glass. We have the capability. Everybody on earth knows when the United States of America puts her mind to it, she does everything she needs to do. She will destroy you in a heartbeat.

In my Administration, you come over and you mess with us, I don't give a flying rat's ass that you live in a cave or you live in the biggest city in the world. We will pound you into glass. Then we're not going to rebuild. We'll be done by 3:30 this afternoon, then we'll go home and we'll start designing new cars and new ways to make energy and new ways to make the world a better place and develop new medicines to help people who want to play together nicely and be a citizen of mankind. Not any individual country – a citizen of mankind.

You don't want to play as a citizen of mankind? You want to chop people's arms off? Go ahead. At some point, you will step over the line and you will cross into our territory. The minute you do, you're done. But not the way we've done it for the last 14 years. We'll be done by about 3:30. I'm going to be less arrogant – maybe by 6:00 tonight.

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Front page image courtesy of the AP

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Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

Get ready for sparks to fly. For the first time in years, Glenn will come face-to-face with Megyn Kelly — and this time, he’s the one in the hot seat. On October 25, 2025, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, Glenn joins Megyn on her “Megyn Kelly Live Tour” for a no-holds-barred conversation that promises laughs, surprises, and maybe even a few uncomfortable questions.

What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

Get your tickets NOW at www.MegynKelly.com before they’re gone!

What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

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