The Pendragon's Hall

The Pendragon recently finished the massive Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era by James McPherson. The intriguing thing is to note the similarities between the Civil War and the War on Terror: disagreement over what kind of a war it was and how to treat prisoners; media's negative influence; the rebels doing their best to use the media to discourage the northern war effort and defeat Lincoln's re-election. And many of Lincoln's speeches sound remarkably like Bush. In fact, there is no Chief Executive in history of whom Bush reminds me more than Lincoln. And if today's media whines about losing three thousand troops in a three-and-a-half year war, I can only imagine the horror they would have felt in losing tens of thousands in a matter of minutes as at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Yet somehow today the Civil War is seen as inherently just and Lincoln one of our greatest presidents. The Pendragon concurs in this judgment, but I am a little more consistent than the ones who pick and choose which just wars are just enough to merit sacrifice.