*Virginia Senator Jim Webb and Historical Revisionism

"Even the venerable Robert E. Lee has taken some vicious hits, as dishonest or misinformed advocates among political interest groups and in academia attempt to twist yesterday’s America into a fantasy that might better serve the political issues of today. The greatest disservice on this count has been the attempt by these revisionist politicians and academics to defame the entire Confederate Army in a move that can only be termed the Nazification of the Confederacy. Often cloaked in the argument over the public display of the Confederate battle flag, the syllogism goes something like this: Slavery was evil. The soldiers of the Confederacy fought for a system that wished to preserve it. Therefore they were evil as well, and any attempt to honor their service is a veiled effort to glorify the cause of slavery. This blatant use of the 'race card' in order to inflame their political and academic constituencies is a tired, seemingly endless game that is itself perhaps the greatest legacy of the Civil War’s aftermath. But in this case it dishonors hundreds of thousands of men who can defend themselves only through the voices of their descendants." (From Born Fighting, by James Webb, Broadway Publishing 2004, p. 207-208.)

*Webb is, by the way, one of the most highly decorated Marines of the Vietnam War and served as Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan Administration. He is, of course, also the Democrat who defeated Republican Senator George Allen in 2006. Webb was enthusiastically supported by Democratic New York Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is a closet neo-Confederate.