No Mercy For Traitors

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."-- Marcus Tullius Cicero

I do not care who you are or what you are. You are expected to be loyal to your nation and your country, just as you are expected to uphold your oaths. We call it "treason" when you stab either or both in the back and instead give allegiance to either a foreign nation or to an alien country. It does not matter what your excuse is; treason is unforgivable, and its punishment demands ultimate severity, because such treachery damages the very fundamental bonds of trust that any people--however great or small--requires to survive (nevermind thrive).