Twenty or thirty years ago I read that students were no longer taught about Nathan Hale. How about you....do you know who Nathan Hale was? In the 60s....he was probably a whole chapter in our grade school history books. What about Benedict Arnold? It's more likely that most know about how he was a traitor to the American cause in the war for independence.
It's more complicated than just describing Arnold as a traitor. He was in his mid-thirties....a merchant....struggling because of strict tax regulations of the British government. He was on the other side of the world doing business when the Boston Massacre occurred....and was outraged...at the loss of liberties.
He came back and began his military career as a captain in the Connecticut militia. His courageous and successful exploits began to mount up....and he was seriously wounded twice....a genuine hero in the making! When the war was not raging he felt very comfortable living with the amenities of the upper class....of which he married into in 1779.
There are at least a half dozen theories that I have come across....on why such a man would willfully and eagerly become a traitor. There may be some truth in all the theories....but this stands out to me....he had an ego....and he thought that he wasn't getting the respect and the honor that he deserved because of his military accomplishments....and he was probably right about that.
Washington liked him and respected his abilities....and put him in charge of West Point...which was not a military school at the time....but an important fort on the Hudson. Arnold's heroics in upper New York state....and particularly at the important Battle of Saratoga....would have cemented him into our history books....but this man flipped over to the other side! Why? The plan was for Arnold to surrender West Point to the British. He had already purposely let the fort's defenses seriously decline.
"The heart is deceitful above all things....and desperately sick....who can understand it?" Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
There were other factors....for instance his wife had Tory sympathies....and he was offered today's equivalent of 3 million dollars to....do what he thought was difficult but right....the war at the time was not going well....and a lot of men were dying. A lot of people today are similarly conflicted. Is Tucker Carlson a traitor....he's about as naive as a human being can be....but a traitor? Would he actually......consciously....aid an enemy? Benedict Arnold demonstrated that one does not need to be an Aldrich Ames or a Robert Hanssen to be a traitor.
In 2015 the FBI and the CIA became very interested in a man who they had already taken note of....because he had for decades been courted by....first Soviets and later Russian oligarchs and Putin himself....and this was not your normal businessman or entrepreneur. He already had forty years under his belt of staying one step ahead of government investigations....and loved the life of luxury....and flirted with financial collapse on a few occasions....and to top all of this off....he was always spouting off on protecting American business interests....and staying away from wars....and holding to a transactional ideological view....that didn't want anything to do with....allies....like NATO....but rather business partners....whoever they might turn out to be....and he seemed to agree with Putin's worldview a little bit too much for comfort!
So....looking back on all of this.....how did it all turn out? Well....all of those in the CIA and FBI and in the congress and everywhere else....that had enough concern here to do something about it....have been purged....(considered by some as traitors!)....and replaced by fierce loyalists. The country has been torn apart....NATO might as well be considered an enemy....and Israel is not far behind....and right now there seems to be nothing in place to even look into these things.
Maybe Trump actually believes that going it alone is best for America? Maybe Putin doesn't have anything on him after all....maybe this is all just incompetence....but whatever it is....everything is a royal mess! Russia is estimated to have suffered 450,000 mortal casualties....and Ukraine 125,000 to 150,000....because of Putin! Can we even wrap our minds around that? That fact alone seems to do away with any real concern for human life or for doing what is right.
