What would they think?

[SuiteDisney]

I've been wondering over the past couple days what people from our past would think of this war. Mostly I wonder about people from the Civil War because that time period interests me.

I wonder...

What would Abraham Lincoln think of President Bush and this war? What words of advice or encouragement would he have to offer?

What would a Civil War soldier from the bloody battle of Antietam think of this massive war where so far less than 175 Americans have lost their lives?

What would a freezing soldier in George Washington's army think of fighting a war in the desert, with temperatures over 100º?

FDR died before the war ended and the truth was known about the concentration camps, but I think he knew what was going on... would he compare Saddam to Hitler?

Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers never saw an airplane... what would they think of our jets and dropping bombs?

I can just picture Robert E. Lee sitting down at a map of Iraq with General Tommy Franks and discussing battle plans. I wonder what General Lee would think of charging in on tanks instead of horses?

How the world has changed since they all were alive. But I think they'd be proud of us. I hope they would.

 

[jenjie]

Great thoughts! How about this one? What do you think Sherman, with his famous march to the sea, would think of our military trying to prevent civilian casualties?

 

[jenjie]

I have thought quite a bit about Ronald Reagan today. I wish he was able to understand what happened today. I think he would be proud.

 

[EltonJohn]

Originally posted by jenjie
Great thoughts! How about this one? What do you think Sherman, with his famous march to the sea, would think of our military trying to prevent civilian casualties?

In fairness to Sherman, I think even he tried to prevent civilian casulties, though I could be mistaken.

While General Tommy Franks did a good job, I don't think he can be compared with General Lee, though General Lee would probably disagree with me.


Pax

 

[dandave]

Sherman may not have wanted civilian casualties, but he probably would have encouraged the coalition forces to rob and plunder Iraq.


http://www.law.emory.edu/EILR/volumes/fall95/robisch.html

One day during the march, Sherman encountered a soldier who had obviously taken items from a private home in violation of the movement order.[221] Although this man was not part of an officially sanctioned foraging party, he had a ham on his musket, a jug of sorghum molasses under his arm, and other foodstuffs.[222] Upon seeing his commander, the soldier correctly quoted the movement order and said, "Forage liberally on the country," ostensibly to a comrade but in actuality for Sherman's hearing.[223] Sherman wrote that he "reproved" the man and "explained" that foraging was limited to parties properly detailed and that individual soldiers were not authorized to enter private dwellings and collect provisions or other property.[224] No record exists as to any disciplinary action taken with respect to this soldier or to the fate of the ham.[225] Incidents such as this, which illustrated Sherman's customary treatment of the loss of private property as matters of little significance, created a belief among Sherman's soldiers that he favored the acts of theft and destruction committed by his troops.[226] Sherman's order to abuse the private property of the region's inhabitants provided sufficient freedom for them to define abuse in their own terms.[227] Although the movement order prohibited acts of plunder and the trespass of private homes, the common knowledge that Sherman tacitly permitted such activities had the same type of psychological impact on Southerners as did his order requiring the forced evacuation of the people of Atlanta.[228]

A common belief among the Union soldiers was that they were entitled to "devastate their (the rebels') land entirely."[229] As long as the war continued, these soldiers believed that Southern citizens had no rights.[230] In his Memoirs, Sherman later conceded that "[n]o doubt, many acts of pillage, robbery and violence" were committed by his men during the march, but he attempted to minimize the importance of these incidents by claiming that such acts were "exceptional and incidental" and that he never heard of any cases of murder or rape.[231] In addition to this unauthorized and unnecessary destruction, Union soldiers destroyed railroads, factories, mills, foundries, warehouses, and other structures which were used or could have been used in the Confederate war effort.[232] The areas that Sherman's army traversed during the march were thereafter unable to send supplies to any Confederate army.[233] In this sense, the primary goal of the operation was realized.

 

[ennazus]

"[America] has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. " -- John Quincy Adams