It is 2017, 152 years after the last shots of the American Civil War

were fired in south Texas between Union Mexican and Mexican American

cavalry and Confederate Mexican American forces, but the war continues.



As more books and articles have been written about the mighty war

(1861-1865), most literate Americans know who was involved and what

the issues were. There appears to be some important exceptions to that

posit.



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Watchingconflate Presidents GeorgeWashington and Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee and his fellowtraitors against the United States absolutely stunned me.President Trump asked if those who demand the trashing ofConfederate statues because of the slavery they defended will now turnon Washington and Jefferson. They, after all, owned slaves, he said.What?Protesting statues of Confederate soldiers is not protestingslavery, it is protesting treason and making war on the United States.Does Donald Trump know that? It doesn’t sound like he does. Where arehis learned advisors?History lesson: Every Confederate officer was guilty oftreason against the United States, specifically of making war on theUnited States. Accepting an officer’s commission from the Confederacyor any state within the Confederacy was “an open confession” totreason. Officers make war, privates just fight them. Article III, Section 3 of the United States Constitution -- “Treasonagainst the United States, shall consist only in levying War againstthem, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. NoPerson shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of twoWitnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.”Mr. President, any statue to a Confederate soldier or politicianhonors treason to the United States. Presidents Washington andJefferson did not give “aid and comfort” to enemies of the UnitedStates nor did they levy war “against them.”Another argument by supporters of Confederate statues and monuments isthat they honor their “heritage” or as Southern sympathizing writerPat Buchanan puts it, their “history.” Intellectually, that positionlacks legitimacy and depth.

That “heritage” and “history” was decapitated by the Union Army directed by Commander-in-Chief Abraham

Lincoln. Most historians rank him as the best president ever of the

country with the possible exception of President George Washington.



Let’s carefully look at President Trump’s suggestion that Presidents

Washington and Jefferson might be dishonored because they owned

slaves.

What do the words “history” and “heritage” mean to these people who use them to rationalize their protests?

It is estimated that only a third of colonial Americans supported revolt

against England. If so, should we honor British “loyalists” who fought

Washington’s army? There are plenty of descendants of these British

“loyalists” around. Shouldn’t their “history” and “heritage” be

honored? No. In fact those that fled to Canada weren’t allowed back

into the U.S. nor were they allowed to keep any property they owned.



That “heritage” and “history” argument suffers beyond belief. Are

Germans allowed to honor their “Third Reich” history? Are Japanese

allowed to blame hundreds of thousands of Chinese victims for dying by

Japanese bayonets? Are Korean “comfort women” who “serviced” Japanese

troops to be blamed? No. American occupiers made sure that such

actions weren’t acceptable. It is illegal in Germany to honor anything from the Nazi Era; the national anthem was changed, the Nazi salute is illegal; sympathetic articles about the Nazi era cannot be published.

The Chinese have not forgiven the Japanese. Anyone blind to what the Japanese did in China need only read or see “The Rape of Nanking.”



So, why should the great treason of 1861 be forgiven or honored in the

United States? It shouldn’t. Why did it take over 50 years to build

the Lincoln Memorial in the quintessential southern city of

Washington, D.C? Why was Lincoln’s birthday never a national holiday?

Answer, because the former Confederate breakaway states refused to

recognize February 12 as a holiday. Voila! That is why we have

“President’s Day.”



Enough accommodating. It’s 2017.

Monuments to and about traitors to the United States is a bridge too far.

The Civil War was over a long time ago. Every monument, statue and

Confederate flag should be confined out of view, not in public parks,

or schools or anywhere that public tax monies are used to maintain

the location and/or the statue or monument.



Strife-ridden Charlottesville, Va., probably wishes it had

removed and retired its statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee

long ago. I do too.

Raoul Lowery Contreras is the author of “The Armenian Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

(Berkeley Press, 2017) and “The Mexican Border: Immigration, War and a

Trillion Dollars in Trade” (Floricanto Press 2016). He formerly wrote

for the New American News service of the New York Times.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.