Just yesterday, a stone’s throw from the White House, the unthinkable happened. A decorated National Guard member, Sarah Beckstrom, was gunned down in a brazen ambush. The man who pulled the trigger wasn’t some foreign enemy combatant smuggled across the border in secret. He was one of us.
Or so we thought.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was a trusted ally. He worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, a member of an elite unit fighting alongside our own. For his service, he was brought to America, granted asylum, and given a new life. He was a man we trusted, a man we rewarded. And he repaid that trust with a bullet.
This isn’t just a tragedy. It’s a warning. A story as old as empire itself. A story that played out over 2,000 years ago in the dark, foreboding forests of Germania, when another trusted ally turned on his benefactors and brought the most powerful empire in the world to its knees.
The Betrayal That Broke an Empire
His name was Arminius. To the Romans, he was a hero. A prince of the Germanic Cherusci tribe, he was taken to Rome as a young man, trained in their military, and granted the high honor of Roman citizenship. He was a cavalry officer, an eques, who served with distinction in the Roman army. He was a trusted advisor to the Roman governor, Publius Quinctilius Varus.
Varus saw Arminius as a friend, a brother-in-arms, a symbol of what a “civilized” German could become. He trusted him completely. And that trust would cost him everything.
While whispering words of loyalty into Varus’s ear, Arminius was secretly forging an alliance of Germanic tribes. He was using his intimate knowledge of Roman tactics, Roman strategies, and Roman weaknesses to plot their destruction. In the autumn of 9 AD, he made his move.
He told Varus of a minor rebellion to the north, a small uprising that needed to be quelled. He convinced the governor to march three of his best legions—the 17th, 18th, and 19th—not along the secure military roads, but through the dense, treacherous Teutoburg Forest. It was a shortcut, Arminius promised. A quick way to put down the rebels and return to their winter camps.
It was a lie.
The Forest of Death
As the 20,000-strong Roman column stretched for miles through the narrow, muddy tracks of the forest, the trap was sprung. The legions, designed for open battle, were helpless. Germanic warriors swarmed from the trees, raining down a torrent of javelins and spears. The Romans were bogged down, unable to form their famous battle lines, unable to use their cavalry, unable to see the enemy that was slaughtering them from all sides.
For three days, the massacre continued. Varus, seeing all was lost, fell on his own sword. The three legions were annihilated. Their eagle standards, the sacred symbols of Roman power, were captured. It was a humiliation from which Rome would never fully recover.
When the news reached Rome, the Emperor Augustus was said to have been driven mad with grief, banging his head against the palace walls and screaming, “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” The numbers of the lost legions—XVII, XVIII, and XIX—were never used again.
Rome’s grand ambition of conquering Germania was dead. The Rhine River became the permanent frontier of the empire. A single act of betrayal by a trusted ally had changed the course of Western civilization forever.
5 Things You Can Do This Week to Prepare for the Unthinkable
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. The story of Arminius is a chilling reminder that the greatest threats can come from within. Here are five things you can do this week to ensure your family is prepared for a world where trust is a luxury you can’t afford.
- Secure Your Home. The world is becoming a more dangerous place. Learn how to turn your home into a fortress. This guide from Survival Stronghold shows you how.
- Become Self-Reliant. Don’t depend on fragile supply chains. The Self-Reliance Report has everything you need to know about providing for your family, no matter what happens. Start with their guide to food independence.
- Grow Your Own Food. The ultimate form of security is a garden. The 4ft Farm Blueprint can teach you how to grow a surprising amount of food in a tiny space. Learn more here.
- Take Control of Your Health. A health crisis can be just as devastating as a security crisis. Freedom Health Daily offers cutting-edge, natural health solutions that the mainstream media won’t tell you about. Discover their secrets to a stronger immune system.
- Embrace Natural Remedies. Big Pharma doesn’t have all the answers. Seven Holistics provides powerful, plant-based remedies that have been used for centuries. Explore their range of natural healing products.
The Ancient Warning
The betrayal of Arminius and the ambush of Rahmanullah Lakanwal are separated by two millennia, but they tell the same story. A story of misplaced trust, of failed vetting, and of the deadly consequences of ignoring the lessons of history.
Both men were welcomed in, given status, and rewarded for their service. Both used that trust to plan and execute a devastating attack. Both exposed the vulnerability of an empire that had grown complacent.
We are a nation at a crossroads. We can choose to heed the warnings of the past, to be vigilant, to secure our borders, and to demand accountability from our leaders. Or we can continue down the path of blind trust and wishful thinking, inviting the next Arminius to walk among us.
The choice is ours. But as the ghosts of the Teutoburg Forest whisper to us across the centuries, it’s a choice we can’t afford to get wrong.
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