Armchair General Bill O’Reilly is very pleased with his latest marching orders for the clergy to demand more war from our president. In the name of God, of course. 

O’Reilly took to the airwaves Tuesday night and declared that the war on terror is now a holy war. And since O’Reilly has covered four wars with a pen, he knows better than our actual Commander in Chief what our military strategy should be. O’Reilly also “knows” that it’s time to get all American clergy involved, too. It’s not clear what O’Reilly’s clerical bona fides are: his holy war of a divorce?

As Media Matters noted, at least one real counterterrorism expert, who has served both the Bush and Obama administrations, has suggested O’Reilly may actually be doing ISIS’ bidding with his stunt. “They want to create a war between Islam and Christianity. So anything we can do to avoid feeding their narrative ... is a positive,” Phillip Mudd told CNN.

Regardless, O’Reilly is already on a path to victory – according to his own self-selected, undefined metric. He announced in last night’s Talking Points Memo:

We received thousands of letters from clerics all over the U.S.A. after our discussion last night about the holy war. And on this Ash Wednesday it is appropriate to define the worldwide conflict between Muslim fanatics and nearly everybody else.

…Last night “Talking Points” called for the American clergy to speak this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday about the moral obligation to protect innocent lives from fanatical killers.

Many of the clergy have responded directly to me.

O’Reilly cited four from those “thousands” of responses without mentioning how representative they were.

Examples:

“Mr. O’Reilly your call for the clergy to stand and demand that President Obama lead the way against ISIS is exactly what’s needed. This Sunday from the pulpit I will address this. We are with you.”

“Mr. O’Reilly when Moses stood at the Red Sea with Egyptians charging, he prayed to God. God told him don’t pray, take action. I applaud your call to clergy to encourage the President to act and I’m honored to join the effort.”

Apparently, that bedrock American principle of separating church and state has been tossed out. But why let that stand in the way of O’Reilly’s Worldwide War For Self Aggrandizement? Or does anyone seriously think that O’Reilly is going to accomplish anything more than puffing himself up and causing more divisiveness in the country?

Meanwhile, O'Reilly was not above blowing the "Obama's not a true Christian" dog whistle. While he overtly claimed there's no evidence that Obama is a Muslim or Muslim sympathizer, O'Reilly deliberately suggested Obama's stance is not appropriately Christian:

As you may know, President Obama is a reluctant warrior, not willing to define the jihadist atrocities as anything other than criminal actions. The President does not even use the words "Islamic terrorism" for fear of offending good Muslims around the world.

Now, some of you believe Mr. Obama is a Muslim sympathizer. Others on the far right even say he's an actual Muslim. There is absolutely no evidence to back that up.

Today the President issued a statement marking Ash Wednesday, quote, "Lent is a season of sacrifice and preparation, repentance and renewal. We remember those who are suffering including those persecuted for their faith. We join millions in deepening our faith as we look toward the Easter celebration," unquote.

In that statement the President describes himself as a Christian. However, once again the President does not say who is persecuting people for their faith. That would be the jihadists primarily.

A real general, a real patriot and a real Christian would be looking to unite the country to fight the existential threat O’Reilly portrays ISIS as. But O’Reilly’s real goal seems to be nothing more than to subjugate everyone to his will. And to showboat while he’s at it.

Watch it below, from last night's The O'Reilly Factor.