re: Last man standing. Robert E Lee will be taken down Friday

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Millions? I believe the total number of men who died in the Civil War was about 600,000.

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the historical count is 620,000. but that's been revised to upwards of 750k. but historians also talk about the effects on civilian deaths and life expectancies, and its effects on the population.

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As for Lee, he was anti-slavery and anti-secession. But he decided to fight for Virginia because he couldn't fight against his own people.

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commendable. but does not change that he picked state over country.

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Back then, states were much more powerful and had a much stronger identity for the citizens than they do today. They were similar to being separate countries under the same umbrella of "America". Much different from today.

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i understand this.

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Lee wasn't trying to fight against America. He was fighting for Virginia.

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i understand this too. i don't know how to explain this further. i know about the civil war. we can get into semantics all you want. you can justify robert e. lee as a great man all you want.

and from one perspective, he was clearly a hero. just not as clearly from the perspective of an american.

why is benedict arnold bad?

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seriously do some research and you will understand the fighting for slavery wasnt pushed till later in the war

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yeah that's not true nice try though

read the Declarations of Secession for each state and tell me slavery wasn't the PRIMARY reason for going to war.

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Lee would have been a traitor to Virginia if he led the Union into battle against his fellow Virginians.

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right. so he chose state over country. so what's your point? is the statue in contention in virginia? did virginia win the war?

Also, by definition, it is impossible to commit "treason" against a country of which you are not a citizen.

ETA: dumbass.

don't see a lot of war monuments to losing parties anywhere else in the world. why should this be different?

Then you aren't looking. There are, in fact, German WW2 memorials in several European countries- including Russia- not to mention countless German cemeteries.

But that's beside the point here, anyway. This is not "anywhere else in the world"- this is America. In America, we are allowed to celebrate things like the idea of southern heritage without fear of someone else trying to tell us it's wrong.
The Native Americans were on the losing side of conflict, too, as I recall. Do you think their own hands were 100% spotless when it came to treatment of their adversaries and rival tribes? No, not quite. Yet no one has a problem with them celebrating their heritage- myself included. And in this country, that is exactly as it should be.

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Then you aren't looking. There are, in fact, German WW2 memorials in several European countries- including Russia- not to mention countless German cemeteries.

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there's a lot of monuments honoring the dead. but not a lot for german leaders. in fact, in the few cases across europe where a nazi soldier has been shown to show acts of individual heroism, a controversy not unlike the one we're seeing in new orleans almost certainly followed. and a lot of times, they find them and take them down.

LINK

also, i'd add hitler monuments and third reich monuments were taken down to prevent them from becoming shrines. the swastika is illegal.

source: lived and continue to live in europe/germany fulltime for the past four years. and part time now.

additionally, maybe you missed the fact that if it were up to me, i said i'd leave the monuments up and use them to educate people on the civil war conflict.

Yeah but, don't tell that to the bitch brigade he panders to. This teaches them that a very small minority can whine and get their way. This country's city governments need to toughen up and say frick off more..

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In America, we are allowed to celebrate things like the idea of southern heritage

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thinly veiled. I love this. heritage of what? give me some specifics.