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Entry: Militarism and Conservatism: Can this Marriage be Saved? Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/militarism_and_conservatism_can_this_marriage_be_saved#18111 Post contents: To read my book, War, Money and American Memory: Myth of Virtue, Valor and Patriotism, quoted was pleasant and surprising. Dan has omitted more damning facts. Ezra Pound was deeply offended that American leadership was assumed by the likes of J.P. Morgan, who profited by the sale of defective rifles to the Union army. Judge Mellon, founder of what was once the largest American fortune, advised his sons that it was the duty of others to fight and die. His sons were put on earth to make money. The rich were allowed to buy their way out of danger. Professor James McPherson, savant of public television and Princeton University, asserted appropriations by city councils and draft insurance societies allowed men who did not want to go to war to pay commutation fees. Professor McPherson baldly claimed this allowed poor men to buy their way out of the draft almost as readily as rich men. These avowals are needed by McPherson and his ilk to maintain moral supremacy and legitimacy for their caste. Professor McPherson claimed that 26 percent of the white soldiers in the Union army were born overseas while the foreign born constituted 31 percent of the draft age population. One possible explanation to the underrepresentation of immigrants in military service given by McPherson was the exemption from conscription given to aliens who had not filed for citizenship. Then McPherson said that two of the principal ethnic groups - German and British Protestants - enlisted in proportion to their representation in the general population, but that German and Irish Catholics did not. McPherson asserted he had data for these pronouncements, but did not bother to cite it. (When a black professor was assigned by the magazine Black Scholar to critique The Bell Curve, which maintained subnormal performance by blacks on intelligence tests, Professor McPherson advised the black professor against reading the book. Reportedly Professor McPherson of Princeton told the black that reading the book was exactly what "those white boys" wanted him to do. If he did so, the black would have to contend with their ideas which would distract the black from contradicting a lot of nonsense. How McPherson could know the book was nonsense without reading it has defied logic. But the most pertinent point was the classic illustration of the closed mind of the establishment academician, McPherson, when confronted with challenges to his deeply held beliefs.) McPherson has not answered two letters asking for sources on the evasion by the Roman Catholics, One of the curious things about the McPhersons of this country has been what they omit and fail to cite either from plain ignorance or deliberate oversight. The puritan strain in America is represented in McPherson, who with a sinecure at Princeton and once a leadership position in the Presbyterian church, carefully made judgments which affirmed the social and cultural superiority of his class. That Roman Catholics were fair game has long been accepted, and that Jews were not has been a covenant of more recent age. However, the Encyclopedia Judaica, published in Jerusalem, gave a Jewish population of the United States in 1860 of about 150,000. A little further in their exposition on the glory of the accomplishments of Jews in the United States gave a total of 500 Jews who fell during the Civil War. These numbers were proudly recounted by The Jewish Veteran, the official newsletter of the Jewish War Veterans. A little computation arrived at the ratio of one Jew in every 300 dying during that war. This worked out to little more than three deaths per thousand Jews. This contribution to the Civil War death toll was of the order of one sixth or one seventh of the rest of the population after making allowances that restrictions were placed on service by blacks. One could feel supremely confident that Jews came nowhere close to matching the contribution of the immigrant Irish on a proportional basis. The question must be why this fact has not been widely known and discussed. The supposition that the esteemed Presbyterian elder James McPherson was unaware of it is simply ludicrous, but far more interesting has been why he would not comment on it. Until the 1930's in the United States the progressive element was almost exclusively in the hands of radical non-conformists and high-minded Christians who attested to the probity of all those who wished to be admitted to their circle. These people asserted their cultural and moral superiority by professing pacifism as the answer to everything and at all times. Almost comical has been the McPherson as cheerleader for the North. Professor McPherson of Princeton professed that Glory was the most powerful movie ever made of the Civil War and provided a cold dose of realism over romantic views of the Confederacy. Harvard hero, Robert Gould Shaw, led his black troops in attacking Fort Wagner. Shaw´s bungling caused more than 1500 deaths while the South had about 150. How McPherson could be gladdened by such incompetence that led to unnecessary deaths of brave men illustrates the woeful inadequacy of those who teach history at supposedly reputable colleges. World Wars I and II One sensed George Marshall had qualms about the performance by his country during those demanding wars and felt we could have done more. Later Marshall told his Forrest Pogue that the Germans are "natural fighters" and "natural warriors", and Americans must accept that. He found the ordinary military quality not to be dominant in Americans during both world wars. Long buried in his papers has been George Patton's disparagement of American infantry in both wars fighting Germany. He thought American infantry needed all the help it could get. These two unflattering assessments of American fighting ability by two competent generals have flustered professional American patriots. Thus they have been forgotten. More satisfying myths have taken their place. Jews in American Wars The present war in the Middle East marks the 6th war that the Jews of America have shirked. They have lied and cowered once again. Those who challenge their calumny are called anti-Semites, a word that causes many professed stalwarts to turn to stone. Unless the Israeli lobby is broken, the sons, daughters, 53 year old grandmothers and single mothers of the American goyim will continue to be sacrificed. Sent at: 2008 08 29