Did Benedict Arnold sell out the Revolution, because the strain of fighting a difficult cause?
Evidently on MSNBC the first reaction to a gunman killing troops is to blame the fact that troops have to be troops. The strain of deployment, the job these men and women signed on to do, has pushed them “to the brink.”
Is that really the best explanation for the evidence we have?
According to Newsweek getting deployed when you are “at the brink” makes a man run through a base shouting Islamic rhetoric and killing people. Wouldn’t the simpler guess about the cause of the shooting, and we are all speculating now, be that a member of our Armed Forces switched sides?
It would not the first time we have been betrayed. Sometimes that betrayal is about power and money as it was with Benedict Arnold. Sometimes the betrayal is about our troopers adopting the ideology of our enemy as a few did in the Cold War with communism. Isn’t it likely that we are dealing with a traitor given the evidence as we know it today?
I can only imagine the MSBC story about Valley Forge (“an army at the brink”) or Iowa Jima (“an army pushed over the brink”). Their interview with General Arnold would have been priceless:
General Arnold: My wife was spending money like mad . . . and the Congress ignored me, passing me up for political hacks. I was under great strain and I cannot understand totally why I did what I did.
Newsweek: Nobody who has not been in your position can really understand. Are you saying that Washington and others are pushing Americans . . .
Arnold: To the brink. Yes, to the brink. Men are not machines. They have wives and lives outside of the “sacred cause.”
Newsweek: You are saying that politics has gotten in the way . . .
Arnold: . . . in the way of supporting the troops. If you love the army, send them home to their wives and children. If you support America, let America have peace.
Newsweek: Some would call that betrayal, you know General Arnold.
Arnold: Yes, but I loved my troopers enough to want them alive and at home with their families.
November 6th, 2009 | 1:33 pm | #1
Well said!
November 6th, 2009 | 2:14 pm | #2
Leave it to the msm to ignore the obvious…oh yeah, freedom and Islam don’t mix.
November 7th, 2009 | 4:55 am | #3
I am currently on my second deployment to Iraq. Many of my troopers are on there third or fourth.
It is easy for some of those on the outside (i.e. non-military background) to make judgement calls as to why our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines may do this or that. “It’s the deployments.” “It’s the strain of combat.” The paragraph that stuck me the mist was the following:
“Of course, Hasan had not yet been deployed, and the true cause of Thursday’s tragedy is still unknown. And yet some are already suggesting that Major Hasan’s lack of combat experience precludes us from assuming the crimes were at all influenced by the stress of war. “They weren’t in Iraq,” author Dinesh D’Souza said on television Thursday night, analyzing the culprit. “They were living a normal, everyday life.” But he is wrong. In the midst of two wars, those living as military and military family experience a different—often, more distressing—everyday experience of “normal.” And forgetting that, either in understanding this singular case, or making a decision about more deployments, is dangerous at best, and morally bankrupt at worst.”
Yes, our “normal” is not everyday America’s normal. In my case at Fort Hood (where I am stationed when not deployed), my unit is up and in formation at 0600 for an hour or so of Physical Training starting at 0630. The work day begins at 0900 and ends generally aorund 1700, maybe later depending on what we are doing that day. I would hardly call our normal day “distressing” as this article states.
No doubt that our wars are taking a toll on our Soldiers and families. That is not in dispute. But to say that “stress” led to this event is too simplistic an answer.
November 7th, 2009 | 5:13 am | #4
Michael,
This was an excellent post with real insight and I am thankful for your service to us all.
John Mark
November 8th, 2009 | 1:59 am | #5
Maybe Major Hasan had Pre-post traumatic stress syndrome.
BTW, does Major Hasan’s murderous actions constitute a Hate Crime?
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