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[Thumpalumpacus]

This is a battle flag that american soldiers fought and died under.

Nonsense. They were Confederate soldiers, not American. Simply because they were born in America doesn't make them American soldiers.

You're equivocating.

This is the battle flag of armies that fought for a nation which mandated slavery to be legal throughout its purview. It was written into the Confederate constitution that no state could restrict the right to own another human being, so the "state's rights" argument is bunk. Those rebel soldiers -- they were rebel soldiers, not American soldiers -- they fought to defend a Constitution which mandated the recognition of slavery throughout its jurisdiction.

I have no doubt they were brave men, and no doubt that inside their limited moral horizon they were doing what they thought was right ... but that flag represents a nation that in its Constitution mandated chattel slavery.