RAND Corporation goes woke
Confederate Statues Symbolize Role of Racism in America
by Thomas S. Szayna
Confederate generals demonstrated their military skills for a cause—the retention of slavery—that was immoral and widely seen as such already in the mid-19th century. As an analogy, German generals in World War II, such as Erich von Manstein, Heinz Guderian, and Erwin Rommel, demonstrated impressive military skills but they fought for an odious cause and there are no monuments to them in Germany today. Military historians can argue about the tactical skills of Rommel or Jackson, and military officers can learn from the battlefield maneuvers that Rommel or Jackson conducted, but neither one deserves a monument in a public space.