[BroJoeK]

DiogenesLamp: "The Confederacy was fighting a war of survival, the North was fighting a war of subjugation. I give defenders a lot more leeway morally than I do attackers."

Except, of course, it was Confederates who first attacked, and not just at Fort Sumter, but all over Union States & territories -- from New Mexico & Oklahoma to Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia & Maryland -- for the Civil war's first 12 months more engagements were fought in the Union than in Confederate States, and more Confederate soldiers died in the Union than in "their own country."

So, the war ended in the South, but it started mainly in the Union.

DiogenesLamp: "This nation drafted men for war, even when our own survival as a nation was not under threat."

Our survival as a nation was under greater threat, arguably, than in any war before or since. The tolls of dead & wounded alone should be a clue.

[DiogenesLamp]

Except, of course, it was Confederates who first attacked,

Stopped reading right there.

Warships sound familiar?