This American is fighting ISIS - and there’s footage to prove it

TheBlaze obtained exclusive video of volunteer civilians taking the fight directly to ISIS. Watch as Chris Toney and his squad are pinned down by ISIS sniper fire and forced to retreat. Even more amazing than the video itself is the personal stories of regular citizens sick and tired of watching evil rise and nothing done about it. Toney talked to Glenn on radio today.

Watch Toney's video below, via TheBlaze. The full story is a must read and can be found HERE.

Below is a rush transcript of Toney's conversation with Glenn:

GLENN: And Chris Toney is on the phone with us now. He's a U.S. Navy veteran. And he's over there on his own. He's over there because he believes in the cause. We wanted to talk to him about it. Why are you there, Chris?

CHRIS: I'm there, Glenn, because ISIS is killing innocent, women, children, men, taking over villages. And, by the way, it's nice to talk to you. Thank you for having me on your show.

GLENN: You're welcome.

CHRIS: I've been a big fan of you for a long time. And years ago, you talked about principles. And you talked about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And he said, silence in the face of evil is itself evil. We will not be held guiltless before God. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. We always grow up in the American educational system starting off with the Holocaust and what the Nazis did to the Jews. And we say as people, we will never allow that to happen again. Well, it's happening. It's happening right now. There is a Holocaust occurring in the Middle East against Christians, against Yazidis, and against Muslims. And the world is sitting back and wanting to play politics. They're saying, we don't want to get involved because we've been involved in too many wars. And it doesn't sound good politically. It doesn't help someone win an election campaign. It doesn't help someone keep their elected seats. So they don't want to get involved. They want to do the bare minimum. When an atrocity like this is occurring, we can't do the bare minimum. We have to step up and put an end to it. We have a thing on our team, what do real men do when Nazis kill Jews? Do you sit back and say that's someone else's problem. Or do you wait and hope that someone else is going to do it. When that doesn't happen, do you forget about it. No, you step up and be a man and try to do the right thing and help people.

GLENN: Chris, are you just a good American warrior. Or are you led by God?

CHRIS: I'm led by God. Now, I don't mean to say that in some sort of like crazy zealous kind of meaning. I guess it's a little bit of both, Glenn. The big question is, how do you get to this? What makes you want to go? A lot of prayer is involved. And when God calls you -- I'll kind of make a joke. When God calls you to go do some work in the Nineveh plain, you better go, or he'll get you there one way or the other. And I prefer not to go the belly of the whale, you know.

GLENN: So you're going. And, you know, you're pretty much on your own, you and your friends. When I read this story and it talks about air cover, the military doesn't have to give you air cover because you're -- you're not part of the military.

CHRIS: No. We're actually there volunteered alongside the Kurdish Peshmerga. The Peshmerga is the Kurdish regional government's official army. Technically, they're outlied alongside Iraq, and they're outlied alongside the United States. So in this fight against ISIS, the Peshmerga, the Kurdish Peshmerga are some of the abrasive people I've ever met. Glenn, I hope you get the chance to visit these people sometime. They're the most Kinds, warm hearted people you'll ever meet. They're very westernized. Their cities are more developed than my own here in Kentucky. Their shopping center is better than what I have. And they're very civilized people. The world talks about, where is the moderate Muslim standing against ISIS. I said to Jason when he interviewed me. They're in Kurdistan. The majority of the Kurdish people are Muslim. But they were so welcoming to me even, though I was a Christian and talked about my Christianity. They never treated me differently. They treated me just like a brother.

GLENN: I would be more concerned about you saying you're an American after we have turned our backs on the Kurds over and over and over again.

CHRIS: No. The Kurdish people, they -- they're smart. They don't group everyone together. They are very thankful to have us Americans there. When American volunteers show up, it is a big morale booster to their troops. And they know that we, the American people, support them. They sometimes have conflicts with the American government. And they separate the two.

Part of this conflict, from what I see, Glenn, is -- you know, ISIS is a world problem. But the Kurdish people are the ones that stepped up to the plate and are actually taking on that world problem on behalf of the world. And it's like the world is not properly supporting them. The Kurdish government is very poor. When I was there, many of their troops had not received their payroll for four months. Yet, they get up day in and day out and go to the front lines every day and they fight. They're severely underweaponized with ammo and guns. The guns they have are really outdated AK47s, RPKs, Dragunovs, some without scopes. The ammo situation is extremely low. Most of the guys I was with were former U.S. Army veterans, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they're used to going out on the lines outside the wire with 400-plus rounds on them. Every Kurdish Peshmerga soldier and ourself, we only rolled with anywhere between 90 and 120 rounds on us to a frontline battle.

GLENN: Wow. Holy cow.

CHRIS: You didn't have a lot of extra ammo to engage in a blind shoot firefight with ISIS. You had to pick your shots, which was tough. Something that I noticed was fighting ISIS is a lot like fighting ghosts. Glenn, on the Kurdish Peshmerga side very much remind me of something you would see on World War I. There's a lot of open fields. That you have to cross without any cover. As the line advances, the blows are still following you. It will actually push dirt up making a reverse trench for us to use as cover. ISIS's side reminds me a touch of Vietnam in that they dig spider holes in the ground and have underground tunnels all over their defenses. So they'll pop up in one area and engage you. Then when you're engaging them, they disappear. And you don't see where they went. Basically, they go down that hole. And they're crossing the battlefield underground. Then they'll pop up somewhere else unexpectedly and engage you from your flank or even behind you in different areas. It's very dangerous. It's like fighting ghosts.

GLENN: How, well-equipped are they? And how much of their equipment is our old equipment?

CHRIS: They are very well-equipped. They obviously have a lot of ammo. The big battle that we engaged in, they had four T62 tanks that were rolling up to start pounding where we were at, so they have tanks. They are very well-trained soldiers, Glenn. That was -- that was some of the discussion that myself and the guys that I was with. The guys were telling me that these were not like fighting the insurgents that they fought in Iraq before. That they just picked up a gun and fought them.

PAT: Where are they getting the tanks, Chris?

CHRIS: I honestly don't know exactly where they got them. A lot of them were left by the Iraqi army when ISIS first started invaded. And the Iraqis dropped their weapons and left their Humvees and left these tanks and ran away. ISIS just took them over.

GLENN: You in your article said that France is actually doing a better job, and I'm seeing this every single time, France has picked up almost the position of the big dog in the world, where we used to be. And we've become France. You said in the article that France is doing a better job than the United States is.

CHRIS: Yes. Absolutely. As a matter of fact the big operation on the 18th of March that the United States was supposed to provide the air support, we had another big op two days prior on the 16th where we were liberating two people. And France was providing the air support that day. They did an amazing job. They blew up whatever tanks were in the area. They took out all the trucks that had the DShK guns on the back of them. They took out all the hardened bunkers and whatever -- if there was a group of ISIS guys clumped together, they would take them out. They leveled those villages before our advance. Which that saves a lot of lives.

And what happens is, you know, France is providing that. And we knew that. But when you get the news stories that come out here in the United States, it's always U.S.-led coalition forces did this. That's saying that the United States is getting the credit. Because it's the U.S.-led coalition. Not France.

GLENN: We're running out of time here. You're fascinating to talk to. I hope we can have you back. And I would like to join you sometime. I'm trying to get over to the Middle East this summer. And I would love to meet these people.

I want to ask you a kind of two questions. If you combine your answer into one. It is this, do you see more people coming like you -- more, you know, soldiers and former soldiers coming over and joining the fight because we're just dropping the ball and they can't sleep at night, you know, seeing this go on and somebody has to stop it, and what can the average person do to assist you?

CHRIS: Yes. A lot more men and women are going over to volunteer. They're -- it's becoming more common. I'm personally aware of at least six people. More people that have volunteered and joined the unit that I was part of over the last two weeks. And there's about five more that will be there in another week. So more people are doing this.

I would say this, Glenn, is that, there's a lot of ways to get involved. You can get involved in funding by meeting these people online. That are actually over there and making donations to help them buy the equipment --

GLENN: How do we do that?

CHRIS: There's different ones. There's not a centralized location for that, Glenn, right now. A lot of these guys, they started GoFundMe pages with their photos on there. They show the photos of them over there. If you see those, those are good guys to support.

GLENN: I tell you what, can you do me a favor? Because I don't want to be taken by a scam or something and give it to the wrong guys. Will you be willing to send me an email or get us information on maybe whose pages we can trust and which GoFundMe and we'll post it and make sure -- that way we're not giving our money to somebody we shouldn't be giving our money to.

CHRIS: I'll be happy to do that, Glenn. Number one thing for Americans to understand. And this is something I came to learn -- you know, when I watch your show, I didn't take your word for things. I read books and started studying things like you told us to do. And what I've learned is, Americans have got to stop thinking that they can't do something. We can do something. We're Americans. We're not Americannots. And we have to stop waiting for someone else to do it all the time. This next election coming up, whoever the president will be, it may make some things better. But we can't expect them to magically make something perfect. And it's the same thing with God. When we pray to God to do something, we can't expect God to do it for us. God will give us the wisdom and the intelligence and the passion and the courage and the strength to do it ourselves. And we have to step up as Americans and start doing more. If you want to go over and fight, if that's what your calling is, you can go do it and you can find a way to get there. You can find a way to support a family while you're there. You can make that happen. If you want to help support the people that are there, and I'll help you out, Glenn, and get you a list of people that you can help there.

GLENN: We will post that at GlennBeck.com by the end of the day today and post it up on my Facebook page as well. Chris, we will pray for you. We wish you all the best. Please stay in contact with us. Let us know how we can help you. God bless you.

CHRIS: Thank you, Glenn. God bless you as well.

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

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The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

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If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

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The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.