Trump opposes efforts to remove Confederate commanders' names from military bases

I love the "those who forget their history..." folks right now. Cool, I guess that means we should rename all our overseas bases in honor of opposing Generals that we've fought against...It's only right since we need to honor the history of those wars and the people that fought against us.

We can change all of our English bases to generals we fought against in the Revolutionary War (Cornwallis Air Base)...Change our German bases to Generals we fought against in World War I and II (Himmler Air Base)...Change our Japanese bases to generals that we fought in World War II (Hirohito Naval Base)...Change our Korean bases to North Korean names (Kim Air Base)...Iraq's base can be changed to Hussein Air Base...Afghanistan to Bin Laden's generals...

Hell..we can keep it going, change bases that are in Texas and the Southwest to Mexican Generals that we fought against. San Antonio...one of your Bases is now named after Santa Anna...you know, the dude that wiped out all the Texas soldiers that fought in your big historical monument. We've got to remember him and if we don't name a base after him, we'll forget our history and turn into a dystopian 1984 society.

 

When Trump and the GOP are to the right of NASCAR and the military you know things are f'ed up.

 

Neo-Nazis definitely complain about that.

By that logic, why don't we have more things named after Benedict Arnold? He may have tried to betray us to the British, but before that he fought on our side. (I see @jo mama beat me to it.)

But of course, you're probably right. And maybe they thought it'd go better with the locals to use "Southern" names when you're planning large yankee installations.

The one history argument I'd make for keeping the names is the one I felt about renaming Dowling St. I'm not going to be very strident about this, and I'm fine with changing the names anyway. But a lot of these things named after Confederates for a long time now have developed their own identity in that name. They've co-opted the names they were given. In the case of Dowling, I don't think of the Confederate soldier, I think of the hub of black night life with all the clubs and bars. Before this thread, I never really thought about Fort Hood being named for a Confederate. Now I have explicitly, but I've known about Fort Hood as Fort Hood my whole life. If it'll now be called Fort Johnson or whatever now, it doesn't just sever the connection with the memory of General Hood, but with the decades we've known of it as Fort Hood.

(Separately, I strongly discourage naming things after people. The historiography changes with time. Historic figures will fall into and out of favor. And the ideals a person might embody for an organization may fit today but not tomorrow. Just name things after animals or plants or colors or something.)

 

I suspect this, but are they a significant group, and is there complaints accepted in the national conversation.

People who support the confederacy and the confederate flag is a huge number here, it's almost been synonymous with the republican party, and their complaints have always been accepted in the national conversation, but it looks likes that might be starting to change.

 

Yes, indicating there probably were reasons, and seeing what those reasons were should be part of the discussion...but pretty clear there is no discussion, so not worth the time. Ironic given that the whole movement going on now is to start needed discussions, though, isn't it? Apparently one sided discussions, because those are always the best solutions to things, right? (not directed at you, Juan, but at most of the 'discussions' going on)

 

LOL... trump triples down and attacks Senator Warren ...



The responses are hilarious:

 

... and of course, republican senators are already on board...

Senate panel OKs removing Confederate names from bases
ANDREW TAYLOR
Jun 11th 2020 12:17PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — A GOP-led Senate panel has approved a plan by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to have the names of Confederate figures removed from military bases and other Pentagon assets, taking on President Donald Trump, who has vowed not to change names like Fort Bragg and Fort Hood.

The ban would be imposed within three years and was approved by a voice vote as a piece of the annual Pentagon policy bill. The provision is likely to be matched when the Democratic-controlled House takes up the measure in coming weeks.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding that statues of Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis be removed from the U.S. Capitol.

Confederate monuments have reemerged as a national flashpoint since the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes. Protesters decrying racism have targeted Confederate monuments in multiple cities, and some state officials are considering taking them down.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/20...moving-confederate-names-from-bases/24519676/

 

Dat sonuvabitch

 

‘This post is genius but it will go over some folks heads That against changing the name of bases.

 

trump's press secretary is saying this... confederate generals that killed Americans = George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and FDR. She can't be that stupid, can she?

 

I bet you are really proud of this nonsensical argument.

Do you know what a discussion is?

Hint.

We are currently having one.

 

I’m not pushing hard for this right now because there are more important things to be addressed first but I agree 100%. As a country, we have honored those traitors for far too long.

 

Until she mentioned FDR one (i.e. Trump administration apologists) could argue that she meant Washington and Jefferson were slave owners.

 

I’m okay with Confederate statues saying up as long as they have either “Civil War: 2nd Place” or “Civil War Participant” on them

 

Talk about a nonsensical argument.

Exactly nobody is saying those places are inherently racist.

 

This was from last July, but this would be a fantastic idea:

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/fort-hood-roy-benavidez

Texas veterans want to rename Fort Hood after a Vietnam War hero and legendary badass

(More at the link)

and at his Wiki page...his story is amazing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Benavidez

 

This discussion reminds me of how Asian countries are hell PISSED to this day over the Japanese Government protecting war criminals in their holy shrine.

The only reason they were buried there in the first place was because the surviving Supremacists of the day snuck or forced their bones in.

Ofc, we chide Japan for not making good on their terrible history and to be More Like Germany who came clean and honest with their past and even invited historians from their bitter enemy France to write a truthful account.

That wasn't easy. I also bet it isn't easy for Germany's Surviving Supremacists to see younger generations wracked with guilt over what their country did during WW2.

 

Given our federal budget problems, maybe we should have rotating corporate sponsorship of bases.

Monster Energy Drink Army Base

Transformers 14 Coming Soon Naval Station

 

No better troops to teach the ChiComs a lesson than at Fort Huawei!

 

No shade on badass Benavidez, really. I don't blame him for what we did in Vietnam and don't have a bad thing to say about him. But picking honorable men in a bad Vietnam War doesn't seem much better (maybe incrementally better) than picking honorable men in the Civil War. At least he wasn't fighting against the US, but there is much to criticize about our involvement in Vietnam and I wouldn't be surprised to be having this same conversation 20 years from now about how we could name a base after such-and-such.