Posted on 05/27/2004 12:27:27 PM PDT by philosofy123
To the Editor/ The New York Times:
Your "Political Points" article in the 23 May Sunday New York Times, reports that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is reading Grant, the biography of the Civil War general, Ulysses S. Grant, as a morale booster.
But if Rumsfeld is going to adopt Grant as a role model or source of inspiration, he (and you) should be aware that Grants policies and actions included the following:
Ordering the expulsion on 24 hours notice of all Jews "as a class" from the territory under his control (General Order # 11, 17 December, 1862), and forbidding Jews to travel on trains (November, 1862);
Ordering the destruction of an entire agricultural area to deny the enemy support (the Shenandoah Valley, 5 August, 1864).
Leading the mass murder, a virtual genocide, of Native People, mainly helpless old men, women, and children in their villages, to make land available for the western railroads (the eradication of the Plains Indians, 186566).
Overseeing the complete destruction of defenseless Southern cities, and conducting such warfare against unarmed women and children (e.g., the razing of Meridien, and other cities in Mississippi, spring, 1863).
Contrast these well documented atrocities (and many others too numerous to list) with the gentlemanly policies and behavior of the Confederate forces. My ancestor Major Raphael Moses, General James Longstreets chief commissary officer, was forbidden by General Robert E. Lee from even entering private homes in their raids into the North, such as the famous incursion into Pennsylvania. Moses was forced to obtain his supplies from businesses and farms, and he always paid for what he requisitioned, albeit in Confederate tender.
Moses always endured in good humor the harsh verbal abuse he received from the local women, who, he noted, always insisted on receiving in the end the exact amount owed.
Moses and his Confederate colleagues never engaged in the type of warfare waged by the Union forces, who routinely burned, looted, and destroyed libraries, courthouses, churches, homes, and cities full of defenseless civilians, including my hometown of Atlanta. My ancestors may have lost the war, but they never lost their honor.
Perhaps Rumsfeld should be reading the memoirs of General Lee or Major Moses, instead of the bio of a war criminal like General Grant.
Sincerely yours,
Lewis Regenstein
Atlanta, Georgia
If he wanted to admire a Civil War general, he should have used Lee, but unfortunately that wouldn't be PC for those masses who don't really know anything about Lee except that he was from the South. For example, Lee was publicly against slavery and didn't own slaves, as opposed to Grant and his wife, and started freeing the slaves of a whole plantation as soon as he inherited it. And as far as I know all of his armed conflicts were carried through with honor.
But, but, I thought the left is accusing us of fighting this war for the Jews...Israel?
Oh, I got it - Rumsfeld is doing this to make up for his hero's (Grant) racist blunder.
Sometimes the Democrats get so convoluted I have trouble following their thought processes.
Thomas J. Jackson even taught slaves to read -- which was illegal throughout much of the South (though I admit I don't know if it was in Virginia).
The Civil War was full of oddities like that. I guess that's why so many of us like to argue about it.
It was, and Jackson didn't seem to care. He started a Sunday School for blacks, taught the same, and sent monetary contributions for its support during the war.
Yosemite Sam missed the end of the War, too.
Let it go, Mr. R.
My great-great uncle starved to death shortly after his liberation from Salisbury prison in North Carolina. But it was a gentlemanly starvation.
I was being facetious, but you're point is a good one. Heck, any movie made before 1964 doesn't pass the sniff testers either.
Actually, Lee would be good. I read a book a few years ago, a joint biography of Grant and Lee. Pretty good on both accounts.
It is fair to say pretty much ANY pow's from either side would have been quite happy to be in abu garib, from what I have read.
"A divided nation would have retained slavery south of the border and as Gen. Longstreet said in the movie Gettysburg, "the war is about slavery". "
Presumably you know that there was a LOT more going on in the causes of the civil war than just slavery.
Everything about the Civil War was improvised: Armies, Medical Care, POW Camps, Rail Transport....you could go on & on. A lot of the apparent brutality stems from that fact.
Sincerely in need of therapy,
AN IDIOT
Atlanta, Georgia
The South is gonna rise again...Yeeeeehaaaw!
"Prince Machiavelli" was a brand of perfume
Niccolo Machiavelli was an author, student of government, and general policy wonk that wrote "The Prince" as a resume in an attempt to get a job working for Lorenzo Medici.
So? Does that excuse that a self-avowed war criminal is now seeking election to the highest office in the land?
Machiavelli wanted to be a Prince. But nobody would hire him.
Muslims admire a pedophile. I can't wait to see the editorial printed on that!
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