Trump's "HERO"
A column by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post:
Robert E. Lee was a stone-cold loser.
No general in U.S. history was defeated as unequivocally and as totally as Lee. For all his supposed strategic skill, his army was entirely destroyed. One-quarter of those who served under him were killed, and an additional half were wounded or captured. He was a traitor to the United States who killed more U.S. soldiers than any other enemy in the nations history, for the supremely evil cause of slavery. To boot, he was a cruel enslaver and a promoter of white supremacy until his death.
It is ridiculous that, in the year 2021, these simple truths are in dispute. But here we are.
As the massive statue of Lee and his horse finally came down this week from its pedestal in Richmond, former president Donald Trump, the unquestioned leader of the Republican Party, penned an impassioned defense of the Confederate commander. It was ugly in its embrace of the themes that have powered white supremacists for generations. It was also fake history.
Robert E. Lee is considered by many Generals to be the greatest strategist of them all, Trump wrote. President Lincoln wanted him to command the North, in which case the war would have been over in one day. Robert E. Lee instead chose the other side because of his great love of Virginia, and except for Gettysburg, would have won the war. He should be remembered as perhaps the greatest unifying force after the war was over
If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago. What an embarrassment we are suffering because we dont have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!
For a point-by-point grading of Trumps history paper, I checked in with Ty Seidule, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and military historian who is the former head of the U.S. Military Academy history department. Now at Hamilton College, hes the author of Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerners Reckoning With the Myth of the Lost Cause.
Ty Seidule: What to rename the Army bases that honor Confederate soldiers
Greatest strategist of all? Well, hes a loser, Seidule responded. He wasnt just defeated; his army was destroyed. The idea that hes the greatest strategist of all is just ludicrous.
War would have been over in a day? If it had, Seidule argued, then slavery may have survived. Emancipation wasnt U.S. policy until 1863. So the fact that Lee was able to keep the war going as long as it did helped add to the eventual destruction of that which he fought for.
Lee chose the Confederacy because of his great love of Virginia? Seidule said Lee was one of eight U.S. Army colonels from Virginia at the time of secession in 1861. The other seven remained loyal to the United States as did Virginian Winfield Scott, the U.S. Armys commander, and 80 percent of all colonels from the South. Lees the outlier, Seidule said. That may be because at that level of Army officers no one benefited from slavery more than he did. Lee ran an enslaved-labor farm a plantation from 1857 to 1860. He wasnt even a resident of Virginia for most of his prewar life; Alexandria, his hometown, was part of the District of Columbia until 1847.
Would have won but for Gettysburg? The day after Gettysburg, Ulysses S. Grant triumphed at Vicksburg, giving the U.S. Army control of the Mississippi River and splitting the Confederacy. Lees army couldnt function without thousands of enslaved people working as servants or in factories and on farms, and after Vicksburg, Seidule said, they lose all that enslaved labor as the U.S. Army pushed into the South.
Greatest unifying force after the war? Grant called Lees actions forced acquiescence that was grudging and pernicious. Though more conciliatory than others, Lee testified to Congress in 1866 that Black residents cannot vote intelligently and that it would be better for Virginia if she could get rid of them. In 1868, Lee joined in issuing the White Sulphur Springs manifesto, which argued that Black people had neither the intelligence nor the qualifications
for political power. Argued Seidule: His idea of reconciliation is only if the White South is given complete political control over Black people.
Afghanistan would have been a total victory under the genius Lee? If the U.S. military had suffered the same casualty rate in Afghanistan that Lees army did, 200,000 American troops would have been killed, not the actual 2,400. Some 400,000 would have been injured or captured instead of 20,000 injured.
No one has lost more completely in American history than Robert E. Lee, Seidule said. There is no general that has been more crushed, more defeated, at the strategic, tactical, operational level.
How much genius does it take to lose absolutely and completely?
Neither Lee nor his statue deserves a pedestal.
Moebym
(989 posts)Would consider Robert E. Lee the greatest strategist in history.
They, after all, have an awful - emphasis in awful - lot in common.
marie999
(3,334 posts)Karadeniz
(22,516 posts)Seeing a cathedral for the first time, was so impressed that he pronounced it "awful and artificial" in admiration!
tikka
(762 posts)Grokenstein
(5,723 posts)Yes, someone made a TV series about Custer. It...didn't last.
BComplex
(8,051 posts)I think all the people in the south who believe in slavery should, indeed, BE ENSLAVED. If they think it's such a righteous position, let them be slaves.
LakeArenal
(28,817 posts)Did dump forget he was president and Lee was just a general?
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,231 posts)johnnyfins
(823 posts)I was particularly interested in this line from TFG: " What an embarrassment we are suffering because we dont have the genius of a Robert E. Lee!"
He just can't help himself with his anti American military speak. The whole 20 year effort in Afghanistan was lost because we had no smart leaders? I'm sure there are more than a few who would disagree. TFG HATES THE MILITARY!!!!!
I now 100% believe every one of those reports about his comments in Normandy. What a shit stain.
NoMoreRepugs
(9,425 posts)NNadir
(33,518 posts)...on CSPAN.
It was a beautiful takedown of the Marble Man.
The video can be found on CSpan's website. It's called "Generals Grant and Lee Reconsidered" expanding on the title of Alan Nolan's wonderful book on Lee, which was titled "Lee Considered," the thesis being that Lee had never been seriously considered but inappropriately lionized.
robertpaulsen
(8,632 posts)Ask a "stable" one!
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,985 posts)MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)Advice taken!
Comfortably_Numb
(3,807 posts)completely wrong. I will say, though, those magats sure love em some losersNazis and confederates. They need to replace those ridiculous trumphumper flags with white ones. That would make sense.
MyOwnPeace
(16,926 posts)of IQ45's 'thought process!"