© WPA-WDW/Mikhael Klimentyev/IMDB.com/KJNPresident of Russia Vladimir Putin • American General Robert E. Lee
As readers know, I often make reference to Putin's forbearance, that is, to his tolerance, patience, and self-control. I admire Putin's forbearance which persists despite Putin never receiving any recognition or credit for it. My concern is that Putin's forbearance does not serve him or Russia well. The reason is that
the Western world no longer recognizes or values the moral code that once defined Western civilization. Today in the Western world there are only two values-money and power.It has been a long time since any American or European military leader said anything resembling what Robert E. Lee told the soldiers who comprised the Army of Northern Virginia:
"We make war only upon armed men, and we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all those whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and offending against God to whom vengeance belongs."
Many of the Union soldiers, especially those under command of the generals, Sherman and Sheridan, who hated Southerners, subjected civilian populations in the South to rape and looting. They would burn down the homes and slaughter the livestock, leaving the women and children unprotected from winter and starvation.
The entire purpose of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was to create a slave rebellion in the Confederacy that would cause the Confederate troops to leave the war to return home to protect their women and children. As Lincoln's own Secretary of State said, the President has "freed" the slaves
only in those areas where we have no presence and left them in slavery where we are in command. As no slaves rebelled, Lincoln's effort to inflict rape and murder on Southern women and children failed.
Comment: See also: