Cleaning Up Our Collective Act

[Humerox]

Originally Posted by Malrubius [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Thank you! I couldn't have said it better myself. In a hundred years' time, the war in Iraq may be said to have been about Religion.

Just as the Civil War is taught in our public schools nowadays as to have been about Slavery. Pfft.

I think you misunderstood me.

States' rights arguments were tossed about on both sides meaning whatever was convenient for them at any given time.

From wikipedia:

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens said that slavery was the chief cause of secession in his Cornerstone Speech shortly before the war. After Confederate defeat, Stephens became one of the most ardent defenders of the Lost Cause. There was a striking contrast between Stephens' post-war states' rights assertion that slavery did not cause secession and his pre-war Cornerstone Speech.

Similarly, Confederate President Jefferson Davis also reversed his original position, that the central cause of the war was the issue of slavery, arguing after the war that states' rights was its principal cause. While Southerners often used states' rights arguments to defend slavery, sometimes roles were reversed, as when Southerners demanded national laws to defend their interests with the Gag Rule and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. On these issues, Northerners wanted to defend their states' rights.

My statement about the war in Iraq was meant to be subtle sarcasm. May have been a mite too subtle.

The Civil War was about slavery, no ifs ands or buts. States' rights was the argument that defended the south's right to keep slavery without federal intervention. It also was argued that the south had the right to secede based upon those very same rights, however, what was the underlying reason for the south's desire to secede?

Slavery, and the protection of it.

So the blanket of "states' rights" can be used to obfuscate the real reason for the war. Leading back to my attempt at subtle sarcasm.