Okay, I came home and started doing what 1% of us single guys do. Search the net for NEWS.
A prominent article posted on my FB Timeline says the Army War College is considering removing pictures of General Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, because they left the United States Army (hereafter referred to as "the Union") to serve the Confederacy.
My "bullshit tolerance" meter pegged out.
REVISING history is about increasing the accuracy of historical FACT, not soothing a case of butthurt.
For example, Pearl Harbor. For years it was claimed the USS Ward, a Wickes-class destroyer, fired on a submarine about 90 minutes before the main attack. There were deniers because there was no physical proof except a few spent shell casings.
In 2002, Bob Ballard and a team of archaeologists found the submarine complete with a hole in the conning tower from one of the Ward's guns.
Claim proven. Revise the books to CONFIRM the sinking and credit the Ward with firing the first shots of WW2.
Let's move to present time.
The Army War College is a facility dedicated to preparing today's Colonels to be tomorrow's Generals. To do this, they study history to understand "how we got here" and today's techniques, tactics and the various odds and ends associated with the decision-making and strategy-planning of today's wars.
History is NEVER pretty. It's always written by the victors, never by the vanquished.
The AWC is considering removing Jackson and Lee's portraits because they left the US Army and served the Confederacy. Why would the AWC do that?
Could it be, given today's political climate and the growing demand the Federal Government honor "state's rights," honoring two men who chose to defend THEIR state of Virginia rather than the Union might get other people today thinking. Could it be people want to forget the past? The reasoning is not clear to me.
We cannot change the fact that Jackson and Lee first served the Union with skill, honor and courage, then left to serve the Confederacy with equal skill, honor and courage. To LEARN from the past, we must not be afraid to dig deep and take a good look at what drove those men to make their decision. We must ask ourselves, "What would we have done in their shoes?" Would we have served the Union and fought against family? Would we have fought the Union and given up decades of work, careers and life-long friendships? Would we have said "I'm out of here" and not taken part at all?
The inclusion of Jackson and Lee's portraits at the Army War College is a reminder that each officer comes from a state and sooner or later, he may have to face the question of divided loyalties.
I think that is the point--to ignore that people have to make such a decision.
In 1986, I was stationed in (then) West Germany. As part of our orientation, we went to the border and studied the modern guard-towers staffed with trigger-happy Communist bastards. We walked our defensive positions at Fulda Gap and knew THIS was where freedom would be won or lost. If old Ivan and his baby-raping Bolshevik buddies got through us, civilization could put their heads between their legs and kiss their asses goodbye because the nukes would be flying next.
When there was time, some units sought to answer the inevitable "Why the F*** are we here?" questions and sent their people when practical to tour one of the concentration camps to explain why America remained in Germany after World War Two, then stayed after Germany was considered worthy of rejoining the "World of Nations and Civilized People" again.
When WW2 ended, the world was shocked at the unspeakable horror of the concentration camps. Many Germans stoutly denied the Holocaust happened, even though they seen the trains and the crematorium chimneys belch smoke 24-7.
At some point someone said, "This happened, we cannot deny it, we cannot hide it, we cannot wish it away. We must accept what has happened, learn HOW it happened, and then make damned sure it NEVER HAPPENS again."
Several of the concentration camps are "World Historical Sites."
Inside these walls, there is no revision. You face the concept of "institutional evil" head on. You feel the presence of evil when you look at the crematorium furnaces. You wonder how you would have handled it. Would you have fought? Would you have sucked up to the guards and done their bidding to buy time to escape? Would you have simply given up and went into the showers?
You walk away with a lot more questions than answers.
At Dachau, there is a monument with two simple words on it in various languages. The monument is simple and eloquent because it states the deeper purpose of keeping such an evil place in good repair.
"NEVER AGAIN"
I'm sure you're wondering WTF a couple of portraits and Mankind's greatest atrocities have to do with each other.
It's about digging deep, not only into the history, but looking into ourselves to see if we would have gone along with the status quo, made no waves and gotten along.
And by that looking, not only make us better citizens, but better people.
We cannot do that if the history is revised for the wrong reasons.
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