In that story, U.S. Army lieutenant Philip Nolan, develops a friendship with Aaron Burr. When Burr is tried for treason, Nolan is tried as an accomplice. During his testimony, Nolan bitterly renounces his nation, angrily shouting "Damn the United States! I wish I may never hear of the United States again!" When convicted, the judge grants Nolan his wish: he is to spend the rest of his life on warships of the United States Navy, in exile, with no right to ever again set foot on U.S. soil, and with explicit orders that no one shall ever mention his country to him again.
The sentence is carried out to the letter. For the rest of his life, Nolan is transported from ship to ship, living out his life as a prisoner on the high seas, never once being allowed back in a home port. None of the sailors in whose custody Nolan remains are allowed to speak to him about the U.S., and his newspapers are censored.
Nolan is unrepentant at first, but over the years becomes sadder and wiser, and desperate for news. One day he says to a young officer, as he is being rowed over to another ship on which he is to be held, he beseeches a young sailor never to make the same mistake he made, and to: "Remember, boy, that behind all these men..., behind officers and government, and people even, there is the Country Herself, your Country, and that you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her, boy, as you would stand by your mother...!"
Deprived of a homeland, Nolan slowly and painfully learns the true worth of his country. He misses it more than his friends or family, more than art or music or love or nature. Without it, he is nothing.
The Fort Hood shooter would have been nothing more than another poor Jordanian peon had his parents not immigrated here. Our country gave him everything, and, spurred on by his religion, he repaid that great gift with bloody murder. He deserves the ship.
Thank you for that, I never knew the story behind A Man Without a Country. We need to put a STOP all immigration until we can protect our Families from those that hate us.