[VR-21]

There's actually been some debate about the origin of the term, with some saying that the US coined it in the Spanish American War. Most accounts I've read go with the Boer War version and for that reason I tend to believe it.

I don't know if it qualifies as "inspiration" but the rationale for the confinement of the families of the Kommandoes (Dutch farmers mostly, who were engaged in guerilla warfare against the British army) was to prevent any material support to the Kommandoes by family members. Some say that they also served as hostages but I've never found anything to support that.

I take you at your word about the Egyptians, and I'm sure that such things have occurred many times in history. I don't think Antinomians comparison to Indian Reservations is apt, but I do think that the camps where we confined the Nisei Japanese in this country would be.

Have a good weekend.

[HKMk23]

I've driven by one of the former campsites at Manzanar, in the California high desert along Hwy 395, many times. It's a desolate little patch of seasonally hot or cold -- but always windy -- misery; almost certainly an unnecessary blot on our American honor.