America has lost too many good men lately.  Rush Limbaugh, Angelo Codevilla, and Colin Flaherty come to mind, and now, sadly, another good man's voice has been silenced. 

In his 2020 book titled The Memo, Rich Higgins was one of the first to sound the alarm of the Deep State coup to remove President Trump and of the subversives within the ranks.  Yet after three short months in 2017 serving on the National Security Council under President's Trump national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, Rich was fired for telling the truth.

At the time, Rich was labeled as a "conspiracy theorist," but with all the recent information that has since emerged, Rich has been fully vindicated. 

The Memo recounts how Rich Higgins's twenty-year career fighting for America First within the bowels of the DoD and Pentagon bureaucracy enabled him to discern — well before anyone else — the Deep State's efforts to stop and ultimately remove the president from office.  He was frighteningly accurate in anticipating the ferocity of the Deep State's assault on the Constitution and President Trump.

Rich Higgins was the vice president of Unconstrained Analytics.  He served on the National Security Council in the Trump administration as the director for strategic planning.  In addition, he was vice president of intelligence and national security for RED, LLC, a company that develops, tests, and evaluates new combat capabilities for special operations, intelligence, and irregular warfare missions.  From 2011 to 2013, Higgins managed a classified project for Special Operations Command (SOCOM).  From 2010 to 2011, he served as the chair of special operations and low-intensity conflict at the National Defense University.  In 2004, he formed the Department of Defense (DOD)'s Irregular Warfare Support (IWS) program office and served as the organization's first Program Manager until June 2010.  In this role, he was directly responsible for the creation of several new strategic and operational capabilities.

Rich Higgins knew whereof he spoke.

In early February 2022, Rich entered the Georgetown University Transplant Center, where a rare small bowel transplant was done.  The surgery went better than expected, but then, suddenly, within hours of the transplant, he passed away.  

I made Rich's acquaintance in August of 2016 when I was invited to speak on Sean Hannity's radio program about Islamic radicalism.  After conversing with Rich, I was elevated to a new level of understanding.  A genuine patriot, Rich was kind enough to share his thoughts and his 2010 Master's thesis titled "No Common War," wherein he laid out the irreconcilable differences between America and Islam and highlighted the security challenges facing the United States.

Twelve years ago, when writing about Islamic jihad, Rich noted that "the modernist philosophy of US security elites inhibits fact-based strategy making.  The conceptual and cultural bias derived from the elites' philosophy obstructs deliberation and collapses the national security strategy making process." 

Thus, "the current US strategy-making establishment is hindered by concepts, missions and organizations created in a cultural and political framework bound by science and the state, all formed in the context of the Cold War and long since ossified into programmatic solutions sets.  Today, the strategic enemies of the US operate almost wholly outside that framework."

In other words, the United States' approach to security must account for "religion, non-violent warfare, and the digital operating environment."  American strategy "should analyze the political and ideological synthesis of foreign beliefs, ideas and strategic ends with the beliefs, ideas, and indeterminate ends enshrined in the US Declaration of Independence."

For example, jihadists know only too well that the American concept of freedom of religion acts as a self-imposed blinder for security strategists.  Consequently, the Islamic Movement is "able to apply their non-violent means without fear of detection or retribution."  Moreover, "the Islamic Movement has leveraged the digital information environment ... to create a counterfactual understanding of Islam among non-Muslims."  The result is a "strategic pseudo-reality" and a "deceptive narrative about Islam."

The singular focus on the violent tactics by our enemies "has resulted in a security strategy that is ignorant of history and the contemporary scope of the Islamic Movement."  Consequently, Islamic "peaceful" methods of war such as subversion and economic manipulation have been given short shrift.

Rich pointed out that "in Maoist terms, the political warfare, mass line, united front and international action components of the Islamic Movement are neglected" to the detriment of the United States.

In fact, "the Maoist methodology is described as violence coupled with political warfare; using non-violent methods, such as participation undermining the morale of enemy forces or offering to engage in negotiations as an adjunct to violence.  Mass Line is organizing an alternative society through the construction of clandestine infrastructure."

Repeatedly, the "Islamic Movement makes extensive and sustained efforts to conceal the truth about Islam from security strategists."  Ignoring the fact of the enemy's stated threat doctrines will continue to bring catastrophe.

One need only see how the infiltration of every aspect of American life clearly reflects the Maoist methodology, whether it be communist or Islamic infiltration. 

Toward the end of his thesis, Higgins points out that "the success of the methodology employed by the Islamic Movement is sure to be exploited by other enemies of the United States."

Indeed.  It is apparent every day in this country.

Higgins diligently worked to highlight that our military and political agencies need to understand that this "is no common war" that is being waged against us.  To ignore this is to invite our own demise.

Donner Finely speaks of his departed friend:

What I can share is that out of the hundreds of people that Rich and I know and have in common as friends and colleagues, he was a special soul of only one.  I loved him dearly like a brother; we walked together into battle, into war, and into political warfare.  And he loved each and every step along the way — and I loved being along with him for the fight.

The closest person to Rich's heart was his wife, Karin.  Once, I told Rich when he was in the hospital 'You are the strongest and bravest person I know!'  Rich said, 'Wrong Brother — Karin is the warrior in this family, not me.'

Rich's friends are now establishing the Richard Higgins Memorial Fund in order to pay off Rich's home so Karin will be able to care for their children, and not have to be burdened by this kind of expense.  A GoFundMe platform has been established. 

It is the least that can be done for this honorable man.  May he rest in peace.

Eileen can be reached at middlemarch18@gmail.com.

Image via Max Pixel.