This is kind of leader we need to seek. So many Christians treated Bush like he was this kind of leader. Bush has none of the character of Lee or Washington.

We need true leaders like our founding fathers. Its not really bring back Reagan. Let us return to the ways of the founding fathers.

Then we understand something else. Pride is a huge VICE in a leader not a NORM to be accepted. Humility is one the most important qualities
a President can have. Washington was our greatest and most humble President.

We need to face the fact Bush was a bad President now not for many of the reasons the left give but because he expanded government in massive way
throughout his Presidency and not just at the end when he started bailout
mainia.

Left the borders open, was pro-red China, pro-Saudi Arabia )the real swamp that needs to be drained.

But his failure was not because he dumb as the left claims but the failings of
his character.. His arrogance, his seflishness his utter lack of respect for the
ways of the founding fathers.

For the Republican party it must escape the grasp of the Bush family and admit the failure of Bush and the failings of the party.

General Grant owned slaves but Gen. Lee did not. Just another small indicator pointer… that the “slave issue” was obfuscation for the true reason for the War of Northern Aggression… State’s Rights vs. federal.

Thank you… Josh Painter… for writing this.

Ned Reck

I attended Douglas Southall Freeman High School in Richmond, Virginia. Having grown up in that area and having been regularly taken to various historic sites since birth, I already had a pretty good education in American and Virginia history.

I knew members of the Freeman family, and when I was a young adult I worked with one of DSF’s great nephews. He gave me a copy of “Lee’s Lieutenants”, which led me purchase the entire biography of Lee and read it.

I thought I knew a lot about Lee (I was young); I was wrong. Lee is a fascinating and complex character, and he lived in a time of difficult choices and great moral dilemmas, not unlike our own. Reading his story in depth has little to do with the Civil War or tactics (fascinating thought that may be) — it has to do with how a person tries to be honorable and do the right thing when the way is not clear.

Over and over, one sees Lee struggle with decisions. He is a man of action who realizes his actions have great consequences, and therefore require great thought. With the eyes of history we can judge his choices; but he had to live his life looking at the unknown future, making the best choices he could.

I don’t know if every leader wrestles with decisions as Lee did. But examining his struggles only increases my respect and admiration for him.

I respect every persons opinion and usually will not respond when something is written that I may strongly disagree with. This is one.

President Bush was a good President. I have learned that sometimes in politics timing is everything. President Bush had terrible timing. Not because of anything he did wrong but just the way things worked out. He did not create the recession in 2001 but got the country out of it through cutting taxes. He led bravely in the aftermath of 911 and his resolve has decimated global terrorism. He has built homeland security, strenghened the military and the support for veterans. And even over the past few months the President has quietly guided the country through a terrible economic storm. It has not been perfect and there have been many mistakes. Many of these challenges are ones that he did not create but happened on his watch. I like many others have shaken my head at times over President Bush and his legacy but overall we were blessed to have him as our Commander in Chief and our President.

Lastly, Lee had a chance to lead the Union Army but he chose the Confederacy. Think about the consequences of that choice. Had he accepted Lincoln’s offer, the war would have been shorter, and Lee probably would have been the 17th President. Had that happened, who knows, maybe President Obama would have been speaking at Lee’s house in Virginia as well as in Baltimore today.

Some have judged Lee harshly because he did not free all of the slaves put in his charge immediately. The general was well aware that many freed slaves who went north were not able to find jobs or housing, and some died from disease and exposure.

Lee’s son, who wrote “Recollections of General Lee,” quotes his father as saying “As regards the liberation of these people, I wish to progress in it as far as I can… I should like, if I could, to attend to their wants and see them placed to the best advantage… They are entitled to their freedom and I wish to give it to them..”

For the general, that meant finding jobs for them and making sure that they had a house to live in, food for their families and clothes on their backs. He also was generous with his fortune, giving his freed slaves money to help them get a start.

Lee’s critics, mostly left-wing fanatics who never studied nor learned a real thing about the history of the south, say that only shows Lee’s paternalistic attitude toward the slaves he freed. That may be, but the man genuinely cared about the people and felt a deep responsibility for whatever fate would befall them after they struck out on their own.

It should be noted that Lee’s attitude toward Black Americans was in some ways more enlightened than was Abraham Lincoln’s. this is not meant to denigrate Lincoln in any way. It is simply a fact.

Again, he was not perfect,either as a general (he was a civil engineer by trade) or as a man. But he owned up to his mistakes, tried to learn from them and tried to live his life as he believed his God wanted him to. Still, British Field Marshall Viscount Wolseley called him, “the most perfect man I ever met.”

- JP

Lee wrote that he didn’t consider how bad things would be for the South after his surrender.

It’s the same as today. No one seemed to think how bad things would get once we gave up on conservative values.

Many died, some were wounded, all suffered. My g/grandfather took a .69 ball in the left shoulder on Cemetery Ridge on 2 July 63, was treated in a field hospital, walked back to Richmond, fighting in the rear-guard action at Manassas Gap where his brother was captured, along the way, and was finally admitted to Chimborazzo Hospital in Richmond on 18 July. He died of his wound in 1914 – tough guy. Another was with Bg. Gen. Semmes in The Wheatfield Another gg/grandfather was in Wright’s Brigade, the hinge on which Jackson’s flank attack at Chancellorsville was swung and his regiment was among the units that first reached the Chancellor house and greeted Lee when he came to witness the destruction of Hooker’s Army. He was KIA in Mahone’s counterattack at The Crater.

I think the modern thing most illustrative of Lee’s leadership is the exchange between Burns and Shelby Foote about the charge on the Third Day at Gettysburg. The ANV was the best and most experienced army the World had seen since the Roman Legions; those men knew what they were facing. Burns asked Foote what made them go. Foote replied, “Because it would have taken more courage to say ‘Marse Robert, I ain’t goin’”

I know what Holiday I’ll be celebrating Monday. I have a really nice handmade ANV Battle Flag, the true 4′ Square regimental flag. It comes out on January 19th and April 26th.