On Independence Day, MMA fighter and Green Beret Tim Kennedy took the time to defend the American flag.

Kennedy posted a message to his Instagram page Thursday expressing frustration over the recent controversies involving the historic Betsy Ross flag. Nike recently recalled shoes with the flag design at the behest of activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who found the flag offensive. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Says Nike Did The ‘Right Thing’ In Pulling Betsy Ross Flag Shoes)

“I never thought I would live in a time where some would find this flag to be offensive and abhorrent,” Kennedy said. “This flag held the field to stop slavery. It flew when we stopped Nazis from taking over the world.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tim Kennedy (@timkennedymma) on Jul 4, 2019 at 6:01am PDT

The outspoken Green Beret sniper has never been too shy to demonstrate his patriotism. When ISIS threatened to send assassins to the U.S., Kennedy responded fearlessly. (RELATED: Watch TheDC’s Interview With Green Beret Sniper And Overall Bada$$ Tim Kennedy)

“B*tch please. I already posted my address online. You don’t need to hack anything,” Kennedy said. “We are begging for your impotent assassins to come and give it the good old junior college try.”

Last year, Kennedy weighed into the debate over whether waterboarding should be used as an interrogation technique, saying that it’s not torture, and posting a video of himself being waterboarded.

“The point of doing it was trying to force a conversation,” he explained to the Daily Caller. “And trying to bring awareness to something that I’m really familiar with — we’ve been at war for 17 years and I’ve been in the special forces for 15 years. And the conversation has been, unfortunately, perceived as negative.”