I don’t want to be the good guy. I want to be the winning guy, and the alive guy.

William Manchester has some great comments on southerners who were fellow Marines in World War II – along the lines of, “how did the North ever win the Civil War when these guys were on the other side?”

Oh yeah, and on MTV, and the local rap station, but that doesn’t count, right?

With respect to the Southern bashing exhibited here, you big city folks can make a choice of being defended by Fort Hamilton, NY or Fort Bragg, NC.

Preach on!

And then can we all please quit whining about “racism,” and deal with facts and realities?

I simply tried to point out, with facts and realities, that Sherman was a racist (and offensive to Southerners) and therefore posting his picture here was a poor decision by AP [not the nutroots media organization].
Tell me about “tired of whining about racism.” Ye who are admittedly not a Southerner, try walking in our shoes for a day or two and see how tired of it you get.
Michael
Proud Southerner, Civil War Historian, and non-bigot

How in the world could those men stand up in long lines and kill and maim each other without running away?

Revolutionary War tactics, my friend.

I am neither a southerner, nor a historian, nor was I alive during the Civil War (hint), nor do I personally know the feelings of General Sherman on issues of race and freedom.

But, I have a proposition. It is my personal belief that by dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese, both soldiers and civilians, who would have been slaughtered in the inevitable firebombing attacks and subsequent invasion of the islands.

Consider the counterintuitive possibility that Sherman’s ruthless march did much the same for the south, by hastening an end to this horrific and bloody war.

And then can we all please quit whining about “racism,” and deal with facts and realities?

It’s looking more and more like Virginia Senate Democrat candidate James Webb is going to end up on the losing end of the “who’s a biggot” sweepstakes. From the Washington Post:Democratic Senate candidate James Webb on Wednesday sought to explain…..

How many generations is it going to take to change the image of the South?

I don’t know d1carter.

Let me say I’m not a southerner, but I’m damn proud to have Southerners as fellow Americans.

A couple of months ago, during the Israeli Hezbollah war, AP took note of a serious of reversals for the west, and stated that we needed a victory. My question at the time was whether he, and by implication, all of us had the stones necessary to obtain such a victory.

We very much want to be the good guys. We constantly note that we have respect for the laws of war vs that of our enemies. And yes it is true. They are savages that cut off peoples heads. We do not. Nor should we. But sometimes it seems our morality has spun out of control. When people called for the end of sanctions against Iraq because they were making the civillians suffer, I wondered how is it that sanctions, which are supposed to me more merciful than bombs and invasions, somehow transformed into war crimes. That seems crazy.

So now we wage war in the most surgical, antiseptic manner possible. But has it really brought us victory? I don’t know. It seems more and more possible that perhaps Sherman was on to something. As were the campaigns of WWII, which were not characterized by smart bombs and lawyers poring over target lists.

Did Sherman do great violence? Yes. Did he help end the war and make binding the nation together possible? Yes.

Perhaps a bit of the wisdom and constitution of Sherman may be necessary to see us through the next 50 years. We would not welcome doing things like he did. But we may be forced to see the necessity, and adopt some of them.

Would it mean the end of our soul? No. I don’t think so. It is a rule of mine not to visit great physical harm upon people. But if attacked in a bar, or alley, I can bring myself to do great damage to the one who has attacked me. Once he has been put down by whatever means necessary, I can and will go back to my peaceful ways.

We can too.

Peace.

When my brother went to The Citadel, he claimed he’d tell people that was his favorite general of the Civil War when asked.

And, being it was the South, they did ask.

it’s an actual, literal crying shame that this stupid race has served to paint the South into the grimacing, twanging, growling, spittin’ caricature all good Southerners have worked so hard to refute our whole lives.

so true. try refuting the caricature of being a southerner AND a Texan. it’s double-duty. I grew up in Houston and was actually asked one time from a guy who lived in NY if I had an oil well and tumbleweeds in my backyard. He got all his information about Texas from JR on “Dallas.”

Everyone has made mistakes – in college especially. I believe Webb and Allen made the comments. But it was 30 years ago. move on. people change as they grow up, usually for the better.

It’s not so hard for me to believe that these men said dumb, racist things in college and, have since learned they were dumb and racist and rectified, not only their behavior, but their attitudes. Both of them have had pretty distinguished careers since those days that seem to reflect that.

If that kind of change weren’t possible, the South would be a sad, sad place indeed. It is not that place, and for me, it’s an actual, literal crying shame that this stupid race has served to paint the South into the grimacing, twanging, growling, spittin’ caricature all good Southerners have worked so hard to refute our whole lives.

Who knows. Maybe I shoulda never written about it. I probably exacerbated exactly what bugs me about this.