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

April 09, 2015

Writer

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.

'Rage against the dying of the light': Charlie Kirk lived that mandate

PHILL MAGAKOE / Contributor | Getty Images

Kirk’s tragic death challenges us to rise above fear and anger, to rebuild bridges where others build walls, and to fight for the America he believed in.

I’ve only felt this weight once before. It was 2001, just as my radio show was about to begin. The World Trade Center fell, and I was called to speak immediately. I spent the day and night by my bedside, praying for words that could meet the moment.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same position. September 11, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. A friend. A warrior for truth.

Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins.

Moments like this make words feel inadequate. Yet sometimes, words from another time speak directly to our own. In 1947, Dylan Thomas, watching his father slip toward death, penned lines that now resonate far beyond his own grief:

Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas was pleading for his father to resist the impending darkness of death. But those words have become a mandate for all of us: Do not surrender. Do not bow to shadows. Even when the battle feels unwinnable.

Charlie Kirk lived that mandate. He knew the cost of speaking unpopular truths. He knew the fury of those who sought to silence him. And yet he pressed on. In his life, he embodied a defiance rooted not in anger, but in principle.

Picking up his torch

Washington, Jefferson, Adams — our history was started by men who raged against an empire, knowing the gallows might await. Lincoln raged against slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. raged against segregation. Every generation faces a call to resist surrender.

It is our turn. Charlie’s violent death feels like a knockout punch. Yet if his life meant anything, it means this: Silence in the face of darkness is not an option.

He did not go gently. He spoke. He challenged. He stood. And now, the mantle falls to us. To me. To you. To every American.

We cannot drift into the shadows. We cannot sit quietly while freedom fades. This is our moment to rage — not with hatred, not with vengeance, but with courage. Rage against lies, against apathy, against the despair that tells us to do nothing. Because there is always something you can do.

Even small acts — defiance, faith, kindness — are light in the darkness. Reaching out to those who mourn. Speaking truth in a world drowning in deceit. These are the flames that hold back the night. Charlie carried that torch. He laid it down yesterday. It is ours to pick up.

The light may dim, but it always does before dawn. Commit today: I will not sleep as freedom fades. I will not retreat as darkness encroaches. I will not be silent as evil forces claim dominion. I have no king but Christ. And I know whom I serve, as did Charlie.

Two turning points, decades apart

On Wednesday, the world changed again. Two tragedies, separated by decades, bound by the same question: Who are we? Is this worth saving? What kind of people will we choose to be?

Imagine a world where more of us choose to be peacemakers. Not passive, not silent, but builders of bridges where others erect walls. Respect and listening transform even the bitterest of foes. Charlie Kirk embodied this principle.

He did not strike the weak; he challenged the powerful. He reached across divides of politics, culture, and faith. He changed hearts. He sparked healing. And healing is what our nation needs.

At the center of all this is one truth: Every person is a child of God, deserving of dignity. Change will not happen in Washington or on social media. It begins at home, where loneliness and isolation threaten our souls. Family is the antidote. Imperfect, yes — but still the strongest source of stability and meaning.

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Forgiveness, fidelity, faithfulness, and honor are not dusty words. They are the foundation of civilization. Strong families produce strong citizens. And today, Charlie’s family mourns. They must become our family too. We must stand as guardians of his legacy, shining examples of the courage he lived by.

A time for courage

I knew Charlie. I know how he would want us to respond: Multiply his courage. Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins. Out of darkness, great and glorious things will sprout — but we must be worthy of them.

Charlie Kirk lived defiantly. He stood in truth. He changed the world. And now, his torch is in our hands. Rage, not in violence, but in unwavering pursuit of truth and goodness. Rage against the dying of the light.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck resurrects the 9-12 Project to support Charlie Kirk's family

Glenn Beck is once again calling on his loyal listeners and viewers to come together and channel the same unity and purpose that defined the historic 9-12 Project. That movement, born in the wake of national challenges, brought millions together to revive core values of faith, hope, and charity.

Glenn created the original 9-12 Project in early 2009 to bring Americans back to where they were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In those moments, we weren't Democrats and Republicans, conservative or liberal, Red States or Blue States, we were united as one, as America. The original 9-12 Project aimed to root America back in the founding principles of this country that united us during those darkest of days.

This new initiative draws directly from that legacy, focusing on supporting the family of Charlie Kirk in these dark days following his tragic murder.

The revival of the 9-12 Project aims to secure the long-term well-being of Charlie Kirk's wife and children. All donations will go straight to meeting their immediate and future needs. If the family deems the funds surplus to their requirements, Charlie's wife has the option to redirect them toward the vital work of Turning Point USA.

This campaign is more than just financial support—it's a profound gesture of appreciation for Kirk's tireless dedication to the cause of liberty. It embodies the unbreakable bond of our community, proving that when we stand united, we can make a real difference.
Glenn Beck invites you to join this effort. Show your solidarity by donating today and honoring Charlie Kirk and his family in this meaningful way.

You can learn more about the 9-12 Project and donate HERE

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

John Greim / Contributor | Getty Images

Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

POLL: Is Gen Z’s anger over housing driving them toward socialism?

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A recent poll conducted by Justin Haskins, a long-time friend of the show, has uncovered alarming trends among young Americans aged 18-39, revealing a generation grappling with deep frustrations over economic hardships, housing affordability, and a perceived rigged system that favors the wealthy, corporations, and older generations. While nearly half of these likely voters approve of President Trump, seeing him as an anti-establishment figure, over 70% support nationalizing major industries, such as healthcare, energy, and big tech, to promote "equity." Shockingly, 53% want a democratic socialist to win the 2028 presidential election, including a third of Trump voters and conservatives in this age group. Many cite skyrocketing housing costs, unfair taxation on the middle class, and a sense of being "stuck" or in crisis as driving forces, with 62% believing the economy is tilted against them and 55% backing laws to confiscate "excess wealth" like second homes or luxury items to help first-time buyers.

This blend of Trump support and socialist leanings suggests a volatile mix: admiration for disruptors who challenge the status quo, coupled with a desire for radical redistribution to address personal struggles. Yet, it raises profound questions about the roots of this discontent—Is it a failure of education on history's lessons about socialism's failures? Media indoctrination? Or genuine systemic barriers? And what does it portend for the nation’s trajectory—greater division, a shift toward authoritarian policies, or an opportunity for renewal through timeless values like hard work and individual responsibility?

Glenn wants to know what YOU think: Where do Gen Z's socialist sympathies come from? What does it mean for the future of America? Make your voice heard in the poll below:

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism comes from perceived economic frustrations like unaffordable housing and a rigged system favoring the wealthy and corporations?

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism, including many Trump supporters, is due to a lack of education about the historical failures of socialist systems?

Do you think that these poll results indicate a growing generational divide that could lead to more political instability and authoritarian tendencies in America's future?

Do you think that this poll implies that America's long-term stability relies on older generations teaching Gen Z and younger to prioritize self-reliance, free-market ideals, and personal accountability?

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