[wardaddy]

Sherman was forgiving....as was Grant more or less...and Lincoln too compared to the Jacobin Radical Republicans

but the behavior they allowed in the war was debatable regardless of their reasoning

were we to do that to our common foes today, the media and most politicians would howl and we would be scorned by history as pillagers

[reagandemo]

"but the behavior they allowed in the war was debatable regardless of their reasoning"

I disagree. What Sherman and grant did was to bring the level of the war up to the point where it would break the Southerners will to fight and limit the loss of union lives. What Truman did to the Japanese was to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to achieve the same goal. Yes some people detest what Truman did but I would argue it was the right decision.

[PistolPaknMama]

were we to do that to our common foes today, the media and most politicians would howl and we would be scorned by history

Makes Gitmo look like the Annual Whitehouse Easter Egg Roll.