At 07:32 PM 4/17/2005 -0700, Gautam wrote: >--- Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> "Our task should not be to invoke religion and the >> name of God by claiming >> God's blessing and endorsement for all our national >> policies and practices - >> saying, in effect, that God is on our side. Rather, >> we should pray and worry >> earnestly whether we are on God's side." --Abraham >> Lincoln >> >> Nick > >A quote entirely stripped of its moral and historical >context - remarkably so, in fact. Lincoln is the >historical figure you can _least_ enlist in your >cause, Nick, because he is one whom most people agree >is the paragon of the modern statesman who _also_ >chose to fight an optional war far more terrible than >any other his nation has ever fought, before or since. > The Lincoln whom you quote approvingly _chose_ to >unleash total war in a way that the West had not seen >in centuries and the United States had never seen. He >did this despite the opposition of most of the rest of >the world (Britain and France, for example, _both_ >supported mediation of the conflict and, de facto, the >split of the United States into separate countries).
Indeed, to this day, many Confederacy sympathizers in this country can't understand why Lincoln did not simply "let the Confederacy walk", since substantial majorities in each of the Confederate States clearly wanted to go their own way. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
