From High Positions

Betraying Your Country from a High Position

This essay starts as a political fable, a story of power and perfidy. The hero, a young American, fired by patriotism, led his fellow countrymen in battles against overwhelming odds. Two of these battles ended with our hero being seriously wounded. However, he rose again to fight the good fight for democracy, while inspiring others to do likewise. He sought to rouse all Americans to fight for their freedom

“Good God," he had once exclaimed, “are the Americans all asleep and tamely giving up their Liberties?”

They were not and rallied around him. But, in the midst of heroism and patriotism, something happened to this leader. He became arrogant with power and willing to risk his country and the lives of his countrymen to achieve personal glory. For this glory and personal fortune, he would turn against his country for a foreign power. He betrayed the rebellious colonies as they were fighting for their lives against Great Britain.

In the end, his country persevered but he became an enigma, a man without alliances, without a country. Benedict Arnold would end his days in ignominy, a man without a country. His name would always be synonymous with treachery and greed, while his earlier patriotism would go unrecognized.

Somehow Benedict Arnold did not receive what he needed from his own country and sought it from the enemy. Please see more on this traitor here.


Seeking Some Broader Implications in the Context of Today

What drives a man to do such things? Benedict Arnold wanted high command and he wanted money. No doubt, he also wanted the power that fame and wealth bring. But what drove him? What did he want so badly that he would commit treason? And as a brilliant commander and leader, did he not know how a traitor would be viewed by both sides? Hated in America, mistrusted, and reviled in England by those who knew a traitor could never be trusted, he was missing an essential part of his character, and was missing an essential part of what it took to be a man. Could he not see this coming? Benedict Arnold will forever remain a mystery, an enigma.

Many of us look at the behavior of our current, and recent, national leaders and ask many of these same questions. What drove President Nixon, President Carter, President Clinton, and President George W. Bush to make the decisions, take the actions, and to say the things that they have?

First is President Nixon and the Watergate cover-up. Surely, he must have known that dozens, then hundreds of conspirators could not maintain the lies piled one on top of the other. A secret shared between two often gets out; one shared between hundreds had to come out. An essential piece of character, of manhood, missing here was never admitting he was wrong and never accepting responsibility for his actions.

President Carter and his speech on what was wrong with America, “our malaise”, must have rung hollow to him when he looked at how his actions led to many of the problems. His election loss and subsequent status as a failed, one-term president is eating at his core to this day. He can still find no fault within but finds America at fault and tries to betray it, through blaming America for the world’s ills, at every opportunity. An essential piece of character, of manhood, missing here was never admitting he was wrong and never accepting responsibility for his actions. President Carter became bitter and came to hate America because of the great things that happened under President Reagan and because Americans loved him; the love and respect that was forever denied President Carter.

President Clinton and his debasement of the presidency and of the actual oval office, his boldface lies, and the trading of missile and satellite technology to the Communist Chinese for mere campaign funds brought the office of president to a new low. The office of the presidency of the United States will never regain its former respect and trust. Essential pieces of character, of manhood, missing from President Clinton are his lack of core values, his lack of self control, never admitting he was wrong, and never accepting responsibility for his actions. He also appears vindictive, mean, and a bully to those he had wronged and whom he thought were weak.

In my opinion, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton are not as difficult to understand as is President Bush. Unlike them, President Bush faced the most deadly attack on US civilians ever, and, although they were fatally flawed, he put together policies and procedures to fight the madness and barbarism of our Muslim enemies. For this he was a hero. He demonstrated the capacity to act; within weeks our Special Forces and agents were active in Afghanistan. His actions evolved to become the War on Terror.

Let’s see how his initial actions, and the subsequent War on Terror, were fatally flawed. I recall that when President Kennedy was assassinated one of the first acts the government took was to close our borders. The borders were closed to prevent potential assassins and conspirators from leaving the country and to protect us in case it was a foreign plot and further attacks were imminent. This same logic was valid on 9/11 and remains so today. Our borders should have been closed immediately and should not have been opened until the dimensions, causes, perpetrators, and their methods of attack had been determined. When the murderous barbarians were found to be illegal aliens, this should have triggered an immediate house cleaning of our immigration system and its replacement by an efficient border guard-interior enforcement organization. Illegal immigration should have ceased to be a problem within days and weeks.

President Bush lost faith with the American people and with our allies over this issue. Trust, credibility, support, and loyalty were lost in dribs and drabs at first, but as his War on Terror policies continued to ignore the enormous security threat of open borders, the rate of loss in faith, etc. accelerated. Afraid of harming the president and his War on Terror, at first many of the president’s supporters were reluctant to speak out, to say our open borders were a security threat. But, as it became more and more obvious that he was never going to do anything about border security, when the President started defending open borders with incredible statements about work Americans won’t do, family values not stopping at the borders, and how illegal immigrants were such good people – the dam of restraint broke. The dam broke because the president had lost the trust and faith of many loyal, patriotic Americans and many of our trustworthy allies. This dam break was to dramatically influence the President’s effectiveness in the War on Terror and deeply damage his popularity and credibility.

Time passed, and conservative Americans who before were praying for President Bush were now asking him to do his duty, to protect America. Most still prayed for him, our troops in the War on Terror, and that the president would come to his senses and close this enormous security gap. The more that Americans wanted to help, the more that they prayed, the more President Bush turned to Kennedy, to McCain, to the dysfunctional US Senate, and the harder he set his heart against those who honored and supported him after 9/11. It takes a strange view of geopolitics and a global war on terrorists to send American troops to guard the borders of Afghanistan and Iraq, while deliberately keeping our borders wide open to anyone, including the murderous barbarians responsible for 9/11.

At what point does stubbornness in disdain for his country and its supporters and in love for and support of a foreign power, Mexico, cause many American patriots to lose faith in their president? I don’t know, and I doubt if anyone does. But sometime between 9/11 and 2006 it happened. Many came to wonder how effective it was in protecting America to fight a war on terror in one part of the world and encourage everyone, including those same terrorists, to cross our borders at will. Still others began to question his motives and the prospects of America falling from within from the uncontrolled criminal invasion of millions of illegal immigrants. Many feel that America does not want nor need a North American Union.

History will reveal the flaws that led President Bush to sacrifice his War on Terror, the Republican Party, and his own legacy by putting Mexico ahead of America. Surely one will be his stubborn refusal to respond to what many citizens were trying to tell him and thereby shutting them out of the political dialogue. Another will be his turn to the left, to Kennedy, to McCain, and to others of their kind. And it may be that as time passes, more and more Americans will see President Bush as transferring his love and loyalty from America to Mexico. It is easy to imagine President Bush becoming a man torn between two countries and an enigma to his supporters and enemies as well. But, whatever happens, President Bush has put his stamp on the beginning of the 21st century and his decisions and actions will carry down through our history. The impact of what he has done will not diminish with time.