What do the following men have in common? Nidal Hasan, Micah Johnson, Gavin Long, Timothy McVeigh. The first answer is that they were all veterans of the United States armed forces.
Nidal Hasan was a soldier and a psychiatrist serving with the United States Army. Micah Johnson and Timothy McVeigh also served with the United States Army. Gavin Long was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
The second answer is that they were all murderous domestic terrorists.
In November 2009, Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Ft. Hood.
Micah Johnson recently ambushed and killed five Dallas police officers and wounded nine other officers and two civilians.
A few days ago, Gavin Long ambushed and shot six Baton Rouge police officers, killing three with one other hanging on to life.
In 1995, Timothy, using a truck bomb, destroyed most of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 men women and children and injured more than 680 others.
Of the four, McVeigh was executed, Johnson and Long were killed by police, and Hasan was sentenced to death.
The third answer is that all four men took an oath. The oath of enlistment reads:
“I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God (optional).”
Officers take a similar oath. While the duration of enlistment is defined, the duration of the oath is not. Many, perhaps most, veterans believe that the oath is binding until death. In any event, the four murderers took an oath — an oath which they betrayed. All these men became domestic enemies. They are American traitors.
During the American War of Independence, one of the revolution’s most respected and capable generals decided to betray the war effort by handing over West Point to the British. He did so because he felt slighted by General Washington, he could obtain a payoff by the British, and he could secure a position in the British military. The plan was thwarted and the general fled.
Benedict Arnold was willing to permit the killing of Americans for his own purposes. He is forever remembered as a turn coat — a traitor. And so it is with these four killers.
They betrayed their oath, their fellow citizens, and their country. They also betrayed every veteran who has ever served and/or died for the United States of America. There is nothing honorable about any of them. Any good they may have accomplished in their lives will never be remembered.
Their friends and especially their families are now shackled with the burden that their loved one became a murderer, a criminal, and a traitor to his country. If they are ever remembered by anyone, this will be their lasting legacy. They were American traitors.
[David Epps is the pastor of Christ the King Church (www.ctkcec.org.). He is the bishop of the Diocese of the Mid-South, (www.midsouthdiocese.org) which consists of Georgia and Tennessee and is the associate endorser for his denomination’s military chaplains. He may be contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]
