Jim’s Rant For The Day. Bald Headed Statue.

As a Southerner I am saddened that the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson have been removed from our landscape. As an American I am saddened as well. As I have said before I have no military ties. But around age thirty I got curious as to why Lee’s tactics are taught in all the military schools if he lost the Civil War. I read and reread his memoirs, Lee’s Lieutenants, by Douglas Southall Freeman.

That book chronicled most major decisions by Lee and his top generals during the war, detailing what they knew by the hour and their analysis and decisions based on their interpretations of the intelligence. The reader actually entered their minds in their decision process. After the second reading I realized why West Point focuses on Lee’s style – he reinvented warfare by always fighting from a defensive posture, even when on the attack. This style actually gave his smaller army a numerical superiority over his enemy. What I saw was bold and new. It was Lee’s action at Cold Harbor that ended the age old insane warfare of two lines of armies standing and destroying each other. I shall miss those statues honoring what they taught the United States.

In yesterday’s podcast by Clif High, EvoWOOtionary War, he too taught a new style of warfare that hopefully will end most of the bloodshed. If you haven’t heard it you certainly should. Although he may not have been the creator of the concept, he is the one arriving just in time to share it with the world. It is a lot more comforting going through the hellish war we are going through now armed with all he has taught us. Again, his wisdom words are soothing and comforting, building up our “moral right” to win this conflict as Sun Tzu would say.

I hope when all this is over those removed statues are replaced by bald headed ones in his honor as our newest teacher.