I think it is much more likely that Trump enjoys the power trip that comes from bullying the weak than that he is specifically out to start a holy war, and at the end of the day the goal of the U.S. military is to do whatever he says, no matter what they personally think about it.

When are military personel not talking officially?

When they are sharing their own viewpoint and not the official viewpoint of the military as an organizational whole.

…have you seen Sen. Kelly prosecution by trump-hegseth-dptOfWar, they claim retired military personel do not have free speech, aka they are always bound to speak officially.

Actually, what they are trying to charge him for is sedition for encouraging troops to disobey orders, which is even worse (nonsense) than charging him merely for speaking unofficially.

According to the person I was responding to, this is exactly what they are doing:

Doesn’t help that the US military are saying the recent war in Iran is to start a holy war and bring about the apocalypse.