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I suggest you delve a little deeper into all of the causes and problems during the Civil War. You seem to want to equate your fellow Americans who lived in the Confederacy at the time with Al-Quaeda.
Your attitude deeply offends many who know better.
If the war was bad, why don't you equally chastise both sides?

I don't think either side of the Civil War could claim much moral superiority to al Qaeda. One side was protecting the evil institution of slavery and the other waged a brutal war targeted at the civilian population.

An ironic thing about a lot of these Civil War debates is whether slavery was the primary cause. Now people who defend the Confederacy (e.g. Sons of Confederate Veterans) tend to say it was not, while most would say it was mainly about slavery. At the beginning of the war though, historical evidence showed it was the opposite. The Conderacy freely admitted that the war was about slavery while the Union would not say it was about slavery because at the time there was not popoular support to sacrifice lives to free the slaves. As usual with war, there seems to be massive hypocrisy on both sides.

Thanks for comments.

I'm not sure how al-Qaida got into the discussion.

I would equally chastise both sides in the Civil War if I thought both were equally wrong in the causes they fought for. But, in my opinion, preservation of the union and abolition of slavery -- the result of the war, even if you don't accept both as the cause -- were more "good and noble" pursuits.

Meck Co. commissioners should have taken a little field trip to Illinois before their vote. I wonder if it would have changed their minds.

The brand new, JUST opened in April, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinios has the best exhibits and tools for learning about the war that I have ever seen.

C-span did a two-hour documentary on the museum a few weeks ago. I was glued to the telly and I am NOT a history buff. This place is a must visit. You could never get from a text what this place delivers.

The museum looks to be a fabulous account of the war and Lincoln's contributions. In one exhibit, the entire war is covered in four-minutes. (Each minute representing a year?) I can't explain it but it was overwhelming just to see it on C-span. I can't imagine seeing it in person.

I'm taking my kids this summer.

Sure the cause of ending slavery was just. My point was one side was fighting for the wrong cause while the methods of the other side were inexcusable. There is no cause noble enough to justify campaigns such as Sherman's that specifically targeted civilians.

Preserving the Union is a cause that is less clear. I would agree it's important, but I'm not entirely convinced the South didn't have the right to secede if it wanted to. After all, it isn't prohibited in the Constitution. I don't think it would have been a good idea, but it may nonetheless have been legal. It would have made an interesting Supreme Court case, I suspect.

Slavery-Bad. Wanting to secede from a growing federalist government-not bad.

There was more to the Confederacy than just slavery. It's pretty silly to reduce everything about the Civil War down to one item like that. And it's doubly silly to advocate ignoring an important part of our history just because it involved something really bad. Investigating history and learning from the past is not bad.

confederate history week great!!!!!
I am proud of my heritage and proud to be from the south and its not all about black and white or slavery or racism yes those were PART of the civil war their was a lot more to it.
Confederate history should be observed and taught
in school becouse it is part of our american history. you can go though all of history and find good and bad its just part of HISTORY.
by only bringing up slavery and racism and not allowing confederate history to be observed and learned about only breeds racism. their were hundreds of black men and woman that gave their lives fighting for the south. WE as a country will never overcome racism if racism continues to be the only thing associated with the confederacy and the confederate flag.
if you cant see that YOUR historical ignorance offends me

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Doug just wants to win PC popularity contest.

A comparison: Germans fought for the Nazi state for two chief reasons: 1) coercion, 2) nationalistic euphoria -- the chance to get some "pay back" for their country from the humiliation of Versaille. Bad causes, in both cases.

But what about the "evil" Confederacy? Doug won't pore over history books, where he would find that Southerners were, by nature, the irascible folk on this continent. To get that bunch to march together and fight together was quite a task. Nearly every time the Confederate government demanded troops, slaves, stores, etc., the citizens said, "no."

Their motivation to fight was not some "misguided cause." They fought out of sheer principle. Regardless of what one thought of slavery (and its'a fact Lincoln didn't care one way or the other), Southerners were united in their disdain for a centralized government in Washington telling them that would pay 85% of the nation's taxes at bayonet. They had this crazy notion that local communities, not federal bureacracies, should decide what's best.

Doug's comments besmirch the valor of the 400,000 white, 50,000 black, 3,000 Jewish, 2,500 Native American, 2,000 Hispanic and 1,500 Asian Americans who fought under the Southern Cross for the same principles.