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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

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To: TigerPaw who wrote (440116)8/8/2003 4:11:34 PM
From: Johannes Pilch  Read Replies (1) of 769670
 
This is also correct. Neo-confederates commonly respond to this point by noting that most southern soldiers did not own slaves and that one therefore cannot claim the war was not over slavery.

It is a wondrously illogical approach. We cannot ultimately define the meaning of the war in terms of those who did not have power to make it happen. You may have fought in Iraqi Freedom simply because you wished to impress your girlfriend. But since Bush had power to compel you and tens of thousands of other Americans toward the single will of "freeing Iraqis," his is the definition we must find in the history books.

Wars are fought in order to advance the wills and purposes of those with ultimate power to advance them. Southern politicians advanced their soldiers to protect slavery, and therefore had the South won, slavery would have been protected. To define the ultimate point of the southern effort, we therefore must refer to the aims of the southern leaders. When Bobby Lee used his skills on the battlefield during the Civil War, he willingly helped southern leaders struggle to protect slavery.
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