General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The truth about the Civil War's cause in 2 sentences and relating it to today's political landscape [View all]Chainfire
(17,531 posts)I don't know if it worked the same in the South, but in the North, a conscripted person with money could pay someone to go in his place. Soldiers serving the Union went to war for the exact reasons that the Southern soldiers did. The bankers, the politicians and the preachers told them it was the right thing to do for god and country. I seriously doubt that 1 in 100 Union soldiers were willing to be killed in battle to free the slaves. They, just as their Southern counterparts were products of their time.
Wars are fought to protect or grow fortunes or for religion or a combination of both. Ethics and morals rarely enter into the formula.
No wars are ethical or moral and war is as evil as slavery. Even as Studs Turkle described WWII as the "Good War" he was wrong, there wasn't a damn thing good about it, it was a battle of evil and atrocity against other evil and atrocity. As always the winners claim the high moral ground and write the history.
If you think that the Allies in WWII had a monopoly on right, you don't know about the bombing of Dresden.