It is obvious to me, maro, that you are an individual that has absolutely no concept of what military heritage is.
The Confederate Battle Flag was a battle flag just as the "Don't Tread on Me" flag was a battle flag during the Revolution. It was not a national flag nor a political flag.
To me, the Confederate Battle Flag means Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, the Valley Campaign, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Chancellorville, Gettysburg, the Wildreness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and Appomatox.
It is the battle flag flown by men that performed some of the most impressive feats of arms in American history. Men that, to this very day, the U.S. Army honors with U.S. Army bases named Fort Lee and Fort Bragg and that the U.S. Navy has honored with a ballistic missile submarine named USS Stonewall Jackson.
To you it means "white power", Benedict Arnold, swastikas, Auchwitz, 9/11 and Osama bin Ladin. Did you forget Attila the Hun?
I understand that it is now Politically Correct to demonize anything dealing with Confederates just as it was once Politically Correct to demonize Vietnam veterans as "baby killers". Once you start down that slippery slope, you had better be prepared to take up the demonization of the Founding Fathers who were slave holders and who now offend certain Blacks, the demonization of those who fought for Texan Independence and who now offend certain Chicanos, the demonization of those Black Buffalo Soldiers who helped destroy the way of life of the Plains Indians and who now offend certain Native Americans and the demonization of those who fought to save South Vietnam from Communism and who now offend Politically Correct American Leftists.
My original post merely pointed out to you that the American Civil War was not simply a war of "slavery" vs "emancipation". In this, any serious student of the Civil War will agree and point out to you that the average Union soldier fought to "save the Union" and cared little about abolition.
In response, you reply the "you guys are mouthing white power" and that "it's time for white Southerners to get over the War Between the States".
For your information, maro, I am not a Southerner. In fact, none of my ancestors lived in the United States during the Civil War.
I am a student of military history and a retired U.S. Naval Officer and I know the respect and honor that military men give to each other.
The Civil War is long since over. In 1913, 50 years after the Battle of Gettysburg, Union and Confederate veterans gathered at Gettysburg with their old battle flags to honor their old foes. The old political vitriol spewed out by politicians on both sides that had driven these young men to kill each other in the field of battle had been buried and forgotten.
In the idiom of the day, the "Bloody Shirt" that hate-mongering politicians loved to wave to stir passions had been buried.
Now, maro, 90 years after that Gettysburg re-union, hate-mongering Political Correctniks such as yoursef gleefully dig the "Bloody Shirt" back up and start waving it with all the political hatred that existed between politicians in 1860 but with additional references to Auschwitz thrown in.
I agree that someone needs to realize that the Civil war is over, maro.
That someone is you and the rest of the Politically Correct crowd.
FYI: The U.S. Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force are now aliies. At sea in joint operations and ashore at joint functions, the flag our Japanese naval allies display is........The Rising Sun, the battle flag of the Japanese Navy.
Japan American Navy Friendship Association Award Ceremony