Statue of Lee to be removed from Va capital.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not to minimize the issue, but taking slavery out of the picture, there’s another reason that statues of Lee and other Confederates should not be on public property.

Once the southern states declared themselves in rebellion, they became a foreign country - their own laws, currency, political system and so forth. And they waged war on the United States. Why should they be honoured? How many statues of Hitler do you find along the streets of Warsaw? Or memorials to Mussolini in Addis Ababa? Statues of Stalin in Helsinki are conspicuous their absence.

Boru

Every service member in the US swears an oath to defend the US Constitution from all enemies, foreign or domestic. (Which invoked mental images of waves of hotties wearing French maid outfits when I was younger.)

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Bobby Lee is among the great generals. I put him with Vo Nguyen Giap and Erwin Rommel. Brilliant when outnumbered and outgunned. But he put "Virginia" ahead of "America" and proved he was short-sighted in at least one regard. He should stand as an object lesson.

Not contradicting what you are saying, merely adding to it. 


Rommel was a "great tactician" is like saying Ted Bundy was a "great serial killer." One can also value the power of the 79 ACE eruption in Pompeii, and at the same time wish it had never had happened. Vesuvius had an excuse, it was not human. Rommel didn't have an excuse.

Anybody can learn tactics from a great tactician. This is separate from that person's politics. J.E.B. Stuart is still quoted at Annapolis.