Opinion: On Necessity and War Crimes

“There is a certain class of people, men women, and children, that must be killed or banished before you can have hope for peace and order.”.

The above quotation could as well have been said by Hitler. Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, or Putin, but they were said by General Sherman after the invasion of the Southern states and of his March to the Sea It mattered not whether women. Children, sick, or aged; Black or White, slave or free, the beautiful cities of Atlanta and Columbia, South Carolina or Meridian, Mississippi with destruction such that it was no more. It is called total war…war crimes.. crimes against humanity..

To put war crimes in historical perspective, prior to the American Civil War, countries at war assembled on the battlefield; army against army. Civilized nations did not as a matter of policy wage total war against non-combatants. Lincoln and his high command (Grant and Sherman) changed this and instituted a policy of total war against non-combatants as a matter of a policy of necessity. By General Order, Lee forbid waging war against civilian noncombatants and wanton looting with severe penalties.

.At conclusion of the War, the North imposed 12 years of military occupation ( 5 years longer than Allies occupied Germany after WWII} and requirement of loyalty oaths before pardon. There were no trials for war crimes of the Norther aggressors, crimes against humanity, or admission of guilt .All was said to be a a matter of necessity because the cause and total War, they said, was to end slavery. As false and hypocritical statement as ever made.

The first and enduring victim of the Northern policies was the truth. about origins and conduct of Lincoln’s War of Aggression. As Washington said “The truth will ultimately prevail where there is (sic) pains taken to bring to light. “.For over 150 years great myths have been perpetuated about the reason the North invaded the South and the conduct of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman. War crimes that Putin uses as his playbook in his invasion of Ukraine.

Perhaps, more books have been written about Lincoln than any other person in American history but I am aware of only one, the recently published “The Lincolns in the White House” that addresses the issue of why the Great Emancipator sold the slaves he inherited ($65,000 in current valuation) when he could have emancipated them as related heirs did.

There are parallels between what is happening in Ukraine and what hat was done to the Southern states in the Northern invasion. Ukraine wants sovereignty and independence just as the Southern states did. Putin and Lincoln did not and for much the same reasons. Lincoln’s invasion of the South was to crush and dominate just as Putin endeavors now in Ukraine.

Pains need now be taken to bring to light certain truths about origins of the Northern aggression. Beginning with Secession of Southern states was not rebellion, was permitted by the Constitution,; and resolution was by force of waging total war and the most egregious violations o the Constitution in our history.. Chief Justice Salomon P. Chase opined in July 1867…”If you bring [Confederate] leaders to trial it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution secession is not rebellion”. And so it should be.