Southern Bread

Here’s another thought experiment for you. This is a letter from Ulysses Grant to his wife in the Spring of 1865, on the eve of what would become the hell of Southern “reconstruction”:

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
IN THE FIELD, RALEIGH, April 25, 1865.

DEAR JULIA, – We arrived here yesterday, and as I expected to return to-day, did not intend to write until I returned. Now, however, matters have taken such a tum that I suppose Sherman will finish up matters by to-morrow night and I shall wait to see the result.

Raleigh is a very beautiful place. The grounds are large and filled with the most beautiful spreading oaks I ever saw. Nothing has been destroyed, and the people are anxious to see peace restored, so that further devastation need not take place in the country. The suffering that must exist in the South the next year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception.

People who talk of further retaliation and punishment, except of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling· and wish to stay at home out of danger while the punishment is being inflicted.

Love and kisses for you and the children,
ULYS

Did you catch that? “So that further devastation need not take place.” Need? What need? There is never a need for leveling entire countries for political purposes. What lunacy and evil. Now, let’s change the words around a bit and see what happens:

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE KABUL.
IN THE FIELD, Afghanistan, June 25, 2009.

DEAR JULIA, – We arrived here yesterday, and as I expected to return to-day, did not intend to write until I returned. Now, however, matters have taken such a tum that I suppose David will finish up matters by to-morrow night and I shall wait to see the result.

Kabul is a very beautiful place. The grounds are large and filled with the most beautiful mountain vistas I ever saw. Nothing has been destroyed, and the people are anxious to see peace restored, so that further devastation need not take place in the country. The suffering that must exist in this country over the next year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception.

People who talk of further retaliation and punishment, except of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling· and wish to stay at home out of danger while the punishment is being inflicted.

Love and kisses for you and the children,
McChrystal

I’ve said it before. We, as Southerners, have been invaded and occupied before. And it was hell. We have little excuse for saying things like “we should turn that place into a parking lot.” In the whole of a country like Afghanistan or Iraq, there are only a small percentage who are of any threat to the world at large. That doesn’t make it ok to lay waste and kill thousands of innocent people who had nothing to do with it.