Jocko Willink on Brian Thompson's Assassination and the Dangerous Devolution of American Culture
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Jocko Willink on Brian Thompson's Assassination and the Dangerous Devolution of American Culture
Jocko Willink draws a stark parallel between the strict rules of engagement he followed as a Navy SEAL in Ramadi and the brutal assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on American soil. In 2006, Willink couldn't declare even a known al-Qaeda leader hostile without high-level approval, yet in modern America, one man declared another hostile and executed him for his beliefs. Willink examines how digital manipulation, social media algorithms, and constant exposure to curated outrage have created a culture of radicalization, isolation, and dehumanization. He warns that we're carrying instruments of brainwashing in our pockets, feeding us divisive content designed to make us hate. This is a call to reject electronic emotions, reconnect with real human relationships, and remember what it means to be American.
September 16, 2025
The Rules of Engagement in Ramadi
In 2006, Jocko Willink was in charge of SEAL Task Unit Bruiser in Ramadi, Iraq. His mission was to help conventional forces secure and stabilize the city from insurgents who were torturing, raping, and murdering the local populace. The city was a complete war zone, and his task unit conducted hundreds of operations—reconnaissance missions, presence patrols, direct action raids, and sniper overwatches—to support US Army and Marine Corps troops who had the insanely difficult job of clearing the city house to house, street to street, and neighborhood to neighborhood.
The fighting was brutal. Many brave soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines were wounded and killed. The civilian populace suffered heinous crimes against humanity committed by demonic insurgents.
The Al-Qaeda Leader We Couldn't Engage
A couple of months into the deployment, Willink's team received intelligence about a specific al-Qaeda insurgent leader—one of the worst of the worst. He had a reputation for absolute brutality, a bloodthirsty boss in an evil death cult. The intelligence gave them a window of time and place to kill him, but the window was small and extremely high risk. This insurgent leader traveled frequently, never settling in one place for long, and he traveled with a significant security detail of would-be martyrs ready to kill and die for him.
Due to these parameters, Willink made an extremely uncommon request up the chain of command. In Iraq, they followed very strict rules of engagement that required an individual must display either a hostile act or show hostile intent before they could be engaged. In layman's terms, before one of Willink's SEALs could shoot, they were required to determine with reasonable certainty that the individual was either committing a hostile act or showing hostile intent. These rules of engagement were in place to protect the civilian populace and mitigate collateral damage.
In this particular case, the insurgent leader was not likely to be committing a hostile act or displaying hostile intent in the location where they predicted he would be. He was simply scheduled to pass through a specific location. So Willink asked his chain of command for this individual to be declared hostile—a legal term that can only be done by appropriate high-level US command authorities, senior flag officers with the responsibility to weigh all available intelligence, legal obligations, political considerations, and consequences for US interests.
The Request Denied
From Willink's perspective, this was the perfect time for the use of this type of declaration. At this time, al-Qaeda and the insurgents had the upper hand in both Ramadi and Anbar province. They were killing and wounding coalition forces on a daily basis and wantonly butchering the civilian populace day in and day out. This high-value targeted individual was a leader of this savagery. If they had the chance to kill him, it made perfect sense that they should do just that.
Willink sent the request up the chain of command, figuring they would get approval. The platoon prepared to conduct the operation—they put together a plan, rehearsed the actions, dialed in their weapons, prepared the vehicles, and waited. The timeline was tight as they stood by to execute the mission, growing impatient.
Finally, just before their drop-dead time to launch the operation, they received word from higher headquarters. The answer was no. They would not allow them to declare this al-Qaeda leader hostile. They would not be able to shoot him when they confirmed it was him. In keeping with the standard rules of engagement, they would only be able to engage him if he committed a hostile act or displayed hostile intent.
This threw a wrench into the plan. Due to the tight timeline and the restraints of the rules of engagement in this particular situation, they did not execute the mission. They canceled it.
Frustration and American Values
At the time, it was very frustrating. Willink was frustrated, but he knew they couldn't let emotions drive their decisions—that can have catastrophic results. Still, seeing so many brave Americans wounded and killed, it was hard not to get emotional when an opportunity to kill enemy leadership like that was missed.
But this reinforced an idea in Willink's mind about who Americans are. Even in a devastating war zone where American lives are at risk and a clear enemy is present, even when a targeted individual is without question a sadistic, deranged, remorseless, depraved monster, even then, Americans seldom declare people hostile. Americans value human life that much. They aspire to live up to their own ideals and the rule of law. They take and maintain the moral high ground even at great risk to themselves and their American brothers and sisters on the battlefields. They remember their American values and do their utmost to maintain those standards.
Standards Shattered at Home
Now, those standards and that ideal have been shattered here at home. Murder is rampant. Destruction is commonplace. And assassination—one man, Brian Thompson, declared hostile by another man and executed for his beliefs and for the words that he spoke. This is happening in America, on our hallowed homeland. And some people cheer and celebrate this execution. That's sickening.
Willink asks himself: What have we become? Where does this come from? How do people become so depraved?
The Pliable Human Mind
When thinking about that question, Willink believes it's important to remember how pliable and impressionable the human mind is, how people are influenced by what they see and what they hear. Just look at normal pop culture trends in music, fashion, or language—these things change all the time. They grow and fade and something else grows, and people follow each other and follow trends. It's part of human psychology. Humans like to be part of a group. It's an instinct. People want to feel secure.
When people don't have those things, that's how brainwashing happens—people in moments or situations of isolation, fear, and confusion. Those are fertile grounds for manipulation. Once it's recognized that someone is in a bad state, an isolated state, a confused state, then it's just exposure, repetition, reinforcement, group pressure, social influence, and indoctrination. Eventually people change what they think and what they believe. That's brainwashing.
The Digital Instrument of Brainwashing
In the old days—20, 30, 40 years ago—in order to brainwash someone, you had to physically control them. You had to physically remove them from their community and forcibly expose them to the information you wanted them to accept. This was challenging because it's difficult to get physical access and control of another human being at that level.
But it's very different now. Everyone is carrying around and glued to a conduit of brainwashing all day, every day in their hands—their phone. You only have to go on that phone for five minutes to realize the kind of destructive, manipulative, and divisive content that's on there.
When you subject a human being to that for four, six, eight, ten, or twelve hours a day with an algorithm specifically engineered and tailored to keep them watching, listening, scrolling, and feeling emotions based on 30-second clips curated to make them emotional, frustrated, angry, spiteful, to make them hate—all for clicks, likes, and shares. As stupid and meaningless as we think they are, when they happen over and over and over again to someone who is insecure, alone, or has a pliable young mind, the result is very predictable: isolation, polarization, dehumanization, and radicalization.
The Path to Radicalization
Radicalization means the rejection of societal norms, the adoption of the most extreme views, and the abandonment of reason. It keeps going until it reaches a point where one disturbed and twisted soul believes he has the right and authority to declare another man as hostile and execute that man.
This is a devolution. This is a regression. This is a decline of our culture. We cannot accept this behavior. This is tribal murder. And what caused it? An infection of the mind. We cannot accept that either.
There Must Be Rules
There have to be rules. There must be rules. Willink isn't talking about rules to be imposed by the government or by technocrats. He's talking about rules that we need to apply to ourselves as humans, as individuals, as families, as communities, as Americans.
Do not allow yourself to be manipulated by electronic emotions. Do not allow yourself to be possessed by digital demons. There is darkness in the world. There is evil in the world. And it has never been easier for that evil to crawl inside your head, to grab hold of your heart, and to get control of your soul. You must cast it out. You cannot accept that master.
Listen to your friends, not your feed. Talk to people, not to pixels. Connect with your family, not with firmware. Steer away from the darkness that surrounds us. As strong as the lure of temptation might be, do your utmost to walk in the light, in the principles that founded our great nation.
Our Country Is Us
Our great nation is ours. Our country is us. It is what we do. It is how we behave. It is what we allow and what we forbid—not the legislation, not the political class, not the elite, but us. You and me.
Our forefathers fought for freedom. Many in Willink's generation did the same. They have fought for freedom and will do it again. They are not afraid and will not tolerate those who aim to destroy us, destroy our way of life, harm our families, or infringe on our freedom. Freedom is our God-given right. It's ours to protect. It's ours to cherish. That is our choice.
It's on us to carry on, to stand up for what we believe in, to be better people—to be better people to each other and to be better people for each other.
We Are Americans
This is America. We are Americans—brave, strong, and free. We must not be hostile to each other. We must not be enemies here in our own land. That is unacceptable. Too much blood has already been shed. We need to make bridges instead of blood, for God's sake and for the sake of our country.
We are Americans and we must act like Americans. One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.
