TEHRAN – In modern militaries, obedience to command is treated as the foundation of discipline. Yet this principle is not absolute. International law, as well as the domestic law of many countries, recognizes that a soldier’s duty is not only to follow orders but also to refuse those that are unlawful.

Kenneth O’Keefe, a former U.S. Marine who served during the first Persian Gulf War, is among the most outspoken figures arguing that American service members must confront that dilemma today. Since leaving the military, O’Keefe has become an activist and critic of U.S. foreign policy, particularly in West Asia. He points out that the oath taken by American troops—to defend the U.S. Constitution and follow orders only within the bounds of military law—places a moral and legal responsibility on soldiers to reject commands that violate those principles.

During an interview with the Tehran Times, O’Keefe reflected on his experience in the Marines, the moment that changed his view of the institution he served, and his belief that increasing numbers of U.S. military personnel are questioning the missions they are asked to carry out.

Below is the full text of the interview edited for clarity and conciseness:

Could you tell us about your time in the U.S. military?

I never planned to join the military, but ironically, and quite poetically, it began after I watched Full Metal Jacket. That movie is essentially a documentary. Stanley Kubrick—a Jewish director and my favorite of all time—created a classic. The first part of that film is a perfect depiction of boot camp, filmed at the actual location in South Carolina.

At the time, I had no intention of enlisting. I had a great job as a waiter in a French restaurant, I was making good money, and I had already moved out, living by the beach in San Diego. But after watching that movie, I felt it was the fast track to becoming a man. I was 19, and I didn't feel like a man yet. That is how innocently and naively it started. I didn't want just any branch; I wanted the Marines. They are a special breed. I didn't just want to be a Marine; I wanted the infantry. I wanted to be a grunt—the first ones in, the last ones to leave. I signed up and passed boot camp with no problem, earning top marks in every category. I became a machine gunner in the infantry, which is not a position usually given to a new Marine, but I was that good. I was an expert rifleman, and I even held the highest award for physical fitness. 

However, everything changed because of the oath. I’ll recite it: "I, Kenneth O’Keefe, hereby swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, to fight all enemies, foreign and domestic, to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, to follow the orders of the officers appointed over me and the President of the United States, according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, so help me God."

The key line is "according to the Uniform Code of Military Justice." Under that code, if you are given an unlawful order, your duty is to disobey it. So, I began acting out. When my platoon sergeant found out it was me, he declared his hatred for me and made my life hell. I went from being the best Marine to the most hated. That was my "red pill" moment. I realized that I had signed up for honor, integrity, and leadership, only to be violated for doing the right thing. I had two more years to serve with this man in charge of me. 

By the time I got out, I was stripped of my veterans' benefits and received an "other than honorable" discharge, despite having acted honorably. The indoctrination—the supremacist ideology we were raised with—was gone. My mind became an open vessel for truth, and I swore I would never give up my freedom for anyone again. 

I served in the first [Persian] Gulf War, but I didn't even have to fire my weapon. Most of the Iraqis were either gone, dead, or surrendering. I spent three days straight awake in combat, adrenaline pumping, but I thank God every time I think about it that I didn't kill anyone. I might have ended up as one of those 22 service members who commits suicide every day because they realize they were just cannon fodder. I avoided that fate, but the experience confirmed that American history is, in many ways, a false history written by the victors. 

Your activism began soon after you left the Marines. You became a very vocal voice against the Iraq War and other U.S. military interventions. What made you oppose the war being waged on Iran?

The Marines taught me important skills: how to use a weapon, how to navigate extreme situations, and how to soak up pain. They also taught me how to methodically and strategically approach a challenge. I applied those skills to activism. I started with animal rights—I became a vegetarian because I don't like harming anyone—and environmental work. 

I was living in Hawaii, which is a nation that was stolen from its people, and I became involved in the Hawaiian independence movement. I made a film called The United States of Hypocrisy 25 years ago, and I formally renounced my citizenship, which made me a target. Then 9/11 happened, and I knew immediately that the official version of events was not the truth.

My anti-war stance has been consistent since I was a young Marine. Hollywood—owned by Jews—glorifies war, but there is nothing glorious about it, unless it is a war imposed upon you, as it is with Iran. Iran did not choose this, but they are finishing it. I have been against any war of aggression, but this particular conflict is especially offensive. I know who is behind it. They want a satanic world, while the Islamic Republic of Iran serves God. They see Iran as a threat because of that. 

That is why I had to go to Iran. It was like a calling, similar to when I first went to Palestine. Iran is on the right side of history. I want to communicate to the American people that the path we are on will only expedite our own demise. We have inflicted suffering on millions, and that karma is coming back to America. 

We need to extract the "parasite cancer" within our midst. I believe all those involved in this treason—the dual nationals and those complicit in pedophilia—need to be held accountable, even executed. If we remove this enemy from within, Iran and America could eventually be friends. But as long as we have this synagogue of Satan running our nation, that isn't possible. I want an end to the Jewish state of Israel, because there is no room for that monstrosity.

Are you aware of members of the U.S. military who are second-guessing their decision to join today?

Yeah, I most definitely am. In fact, everything I’m hearing indicates that we’ve never had a higher rate of conscientious objectors. I know you’re aware of the fires on the ships and the sewage getting blocked. This is an active attempt to subvert this war, to get out of this war. A lot of them also know that they’re being sent to die. Not only are they being sent to die as cannon fodder, but they’re doing it for the Jewish state of Israel. This has nothing to do with protecting America.

In my view, this is purely by the design of Milikowski—who everybody knows as Netanyahu. This Polish Jew, who has no Semitic blood, owns our president, who is a pedophile, and you’re being told to die for Israel. That’s a hard sell.

If you can trick people into believing there’s something noble in it, that’s one thing. But every other war brought America together. This one has not. Even during the Iraq War, you saw yellow ribbons around trees and “support your troops” everywhere. You’re not really getting any of that now. Only the worst of the worst—prostitutes who sold their soul—are saying this, like Fox News or Mark Levin, these idiots who are, in my view, among the most anti-American people on the planet because they really serve Israel. They don’t serve America.

For the first time, this has spread. The truth has become widely known. I would argue that’s because of the real-time genocide in Gaza, first and foremost. But also, people can see that this is a war of choice—that we didn’t need to do this. It’s also, in my view, a way to help cover for the Epstein files that were promised to be released and yet aren’t, even though Congress passed a law saying they have to be released.

Too many Americans, both in the military and outside it, know this is an absolute disaster. That has never been the reality before.

And beyond that, historically, for the first time in American history, Palestine is more favored by the public in America than Israel. That was never the case before. For decades, the propaganda said Palestinians are terrorists, that Israelis don’t have a partner in peace, and so Palestine’s standing was way down while Israel’s was way up. That has now reversed.

For decades we were told that Palestinians and Hamas were all terrorists—literally, that was the message—so Israel was the good guy. They even infected us with things like “Judeo-Christian.” You’d have to be a special kind of stupid, in my view, to call your religion Judeo-Christian when, as Christians believe, it was the Jews who crucified our Savior, and when, according to these beliefs, they say our Savior is boiling in hot excrement in hell, and that Mother Mary—who, as you and I know, is the only woman referred to by name in the entire Quran—is a whore according to them. And you’re going to go die for them?

I wish everybody had known this a long time ago, because it was all there. But they didn’t. I’d argue cheap gas and Walmart were enough to stupefy our people into submissive idiocy, and so we went off and fought these wars for Israel. Look at them: Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon—all of it, in my view, was for Greater Israel. None of these wars should have been fought. Americans didn’t know that before, but growing numbers know it now. The equation has totally changed, and that has also changed the military at the higher ranks.

What do you think about the man now in charge of the U.S. military, Pete Hegseth?

He’s like the guy on the high school football team who’s an idiot. Literally, that’s our Secretary of War: a macho dude saying, “Wow, I wish I could be like you.” It’s an embarrassing situation.

Surely everyone can see it. I watched this—I don’t know if you’ve seen it—but Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, summoned top military brass from around the world to the Pentagon, where he gave a lecture alongside Trump. If you watch it, you’ll see these are guys who’ve been in the military for decades. They’ve been in war. They know what war is. And here comes this punk, this teenage-football-player type, getting up and talking about how we’re going to throw the rules of war out the window, and how they’re all fat and need to get like him. They had to sit there and listen to this idiot say those things. If you look in their eyes, I swear it shows the discipline of the military that nobody just got up and slapped him.

And he’s not a real soldier. He’s a National Guard guy. We call them weekend warriors. He hasn’t served in a real war in any real war position. The guy is a joke, but he’s our Secretary of War.

It’s like a bad B-movie. I’d recommend to your audience a movie called Idiocracy. It shows America hundreds of years in the future after the dumbing down and dumbing down and dumbing down of society. If you amplify the idiocy and stupidity of my birth nation tenfold or a hundredfold, that movie is a predictor.

And now we literally have people like this. That’s the best we’ve got. Then we’ve got stinky Donald Trump—pedophile Donald Trump—as our commander. You’ve got to be in a truly sorry state if these are the people you’re putting forward as your leaders.

There have been many layoffs under Pete Hegseth in the U.S. military. How do you think people like him have changed the Pentagon?

Well, these traitors have done a good job of effectively eliminating the real patriots from the higher ranks. A lot of them have quit. The commander in the Venezuela region quit because he was basically being told to commit war crimes, so he retired.

There are a lot of guys like that. They know who the good ones are—the ones who won’t just follow orders—and they also know who the compliant ones are, the ones who will do whatever they’re told. They have no soul.

So, they purged a lot of the good ones and replaced them with yes-men, just like the people surrounding Donald Trump. There’s nobody around Donald Trump willing to say, “You know what? You actually stink, man. You should really shower. And you know what? You look really silly and stupid with your fake orange tan.” No one says that to him. They all kiss his butt.

And morale in the military has never been lower. Really, genuinely, morale is very low. Guys who have spent their whole lives in the military, who put their lives on the line, are retiring. They’re not even getting all the benefits they deserve. I mean, we’ve committed crimes, so I’m hard-pressed to say what we deserve—but they dedicated their lives to the military, and now they’re watching all this and asking themselves: Is this what I joined for? Is this what I gave my life for—for Pete Hegseth? For invading, or looking to invade, a country that never posed a threat? For bankrupting our country and then hiding the Epstein files? So, we’re going to do World War III instead of having accountability for that?

Even as stupid as many people are, you really can’t be so stupid as to think this is anything but a disaster. And the real plan, in my view, is to implode America anyway, so that Pax Americana can be replaced by Pax Judaica and Greater Israel. That’s their plan. That’s what they’re doing. They are purposely imploding America.

I’m doing my best to sound the alarm, because if enough military personnel refuse these orders, they will be heroes too. I’ll say it here: in the old days, if you refused to go to Vietnam or somewhere else, you were called a coward, a traitor, this, that, and the other. But this time, for someone in the military to say, “I’m not doing this. I’m not doing this because this is unlawful. This is destructive to America. I love my country, and I know I must disobey this order. I cannot be party to this”—those people are going to be the heroes.

And I pray that larger and larger numbers of them do it, because it’s a courageous act. They could risk many years in Leavenworth or the brig.

I hope the parents of these soldiers and Marines and others say to their children in the military, “Son, if you’re having second thoughts, we’re with you. We love you. We’ll always stand by you.” Give them the support they need—maybe enough to push them over the top so they say, “You know what? I’m not doing this. I’m not doing this.”

Do you believe there is a significant number of military personnel currently disobeying orders?

There is soft resistance, such as the damage to property we’ve seen—fires on ships or sabotaged sewage systems. It is clear that many personnel are violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice; you are not permitted to cause such disruption. That is soft resistance. 

Harder resistance would be actively refusing orders and standing on the position that those directives are unlawful, destructive to America, and favor a foreign entity that has hijacked our nation. The enemy is not Iran; the enemy is inside our own gates, in the halls of Congress and the White House. That is the 'big move,' and it requires courage. I pray that large numbers of Americans do this. 

In the meantime, we mentioned Minab. I have identified the chain of command that authorized that double-tap, triple-tap missile strike on Minab, which resulted in the deaths of 168 children. I intend to name them—not just Donald Trump, but everyone in that chain of command. Quite frankly, I feel no sympathy for them. That was an order you should have refused. You didn’t; you authorized or pressed the button to kill 168 children. Nothing other than justice will do. When I met the parents and the children at Minab, I promised I would do everything I could to bring them justice. It is time to name these commanders who carry out unlawful orders. 

People often invoke the “just following orders” excuse used by the Nazis. We have long held that the honorable thing to do was to refuse those orders. Yet, those” following orders” today are destroying their country, tempting World War III, and risking the starvation of tens, if not hundreds, of millions if the Bab-al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz are cut off. You need to refuse your orders.

In your view, was the attack on the Minab school intentional or an accident?

In the simplest terms, this is a battle between God and Satan. As Jesus said, those who claim to be Judeans but lie are the synagogue of Satan. What does Satan want? He wants to destroy everything innocent, pure, and virtuous. Does it make those of us who serve God or have humanity in our hearts feel good to see the body parts of children scattered? No; it brings horror and deep, crushing pain. 

Satan, however, loves this. It is beneficial to him, and he demands that his servants commit such acts. This is objectively provable. Anyone who doubts that these people conduct ritual satanic sacrifices fails to understand that this is all part of Satan’s structure. 

To answer your question: the attack on Minab was 100% intentional. There is zero question about that. Why was it done? Because Satan is in charge of my country. I know the chant that “the Great Satan is America,” and there is absolute truth to that. The leadership of my country is serving Satan; therefore, killing children is simply part and parcel of what their master requires. One must enter the mind of a psychopath and a servant of Satan to understand the logic of what these animals are doing.

The attack on the Dena destroyer is less discussed than the school in Minab. Was the attack on the Dena a standard U.S. operation?

This attack on the Dena reminds me of the USS Liberty. I know the survivors of the Liberty, like Phil Turney, and one of my compatriots spoke to the captain, Captain McGonagle. For those who do not understand that history, that was Israel. Israel attacked us in the Mediterranean off the coast of Gaza, killing 34 U.S. sailors. Phil Turney wrote a book about it called What I Saw That Day. 

What Israel did to us; we have now done to you. In both cases, these were unprovoked attacks. And that is not the only thing they have done. The 9/11 attacks were a Mossad operation; they worked with the CIA, but it was a Mossad operation. They have done this over and over. Now, because America is controlled by Israel, we are duplicating that model. We were already committing crimes, but now we are just copying the Jewish state of Israel. 

As a former Marine, I can tell you that being on a ship that is hit is a horrible way to die. It is not going to be a pleasant death. Everyone who authorized that attack should be facing war crimes trials and rotting in prison. We live in an age of impunity where there are no consequences for the worst of crimes. We need to change that.

How could the wars the U.S. is launching for Israel end?

I am praying and working for the best possibility, but even now, people are going to starve because of the fertilizer and oil that has not been allowed through. Remote areas of this world are going to suffer badly for what has been imposed on the world by the order of the Jewish state of Israel. My nation is currently a servant to that state. 

Where this goes is the big question. The master of America knows they are in their dying days—they are like a wild animal backed into a corner. I anticipate they will lash out, and that America will do it. However, I am praying and I see a possibility that, somehow, America will run back home. I agree with Iran that the status quo is not acceptable; we are not playing this game anymore. You have been conducting economic warfare on us ever since the ousting of your puppet, and we have been the most civil, patient, and overly cooperative partners on multiple levels, yet you still do this. We are not doing it anymore. 

Ideally, in the best-case scenario, Iran could capture some of these airborne rangers or Marines, cut them off from their supplies, take them as POWs, and use them as bargaining chips. “You want your boys back? Here is the deal: sign on the dotted line, pay reparations for all the damage done to our cities and children, and cease all proxy support.” If you do that, take your ships and troops home, we can deal with Israel. We all know what happens to Israel without its big brother. The world would cheer. I want to see Iran be the absolute hero of the world and give the greatest gift to humanity in history. 

However, there is a very distinct possibility that my nation will carry out a major attack on your infrastructure, attempting to destroy your civilization. I have no doubt that Iran will hit back so hard that it will cause a calamity not witnessed in living history—one that makes even World War II pale in comparison. I see a window where that can be avoided, but the onus is on the American people. If there is any way to save your country, it is to pull out now. If you don't, you will cause mass suffering, become the most hated nation in history with the most hated president ever, and ultimately be destroyed. It is up to the American people, and I pray they read the writing on the wall. Otherwise, it is 100% over for my birth nation.