For one thing, it worked. But I wasn’t there at the time, not to mention not being born at the time, so it’s hard to argue about what I would have said about the Civil War.
For certain values of “worked”. Slavery was abolished, similarly Saddam is no longer in power and Iraq is certainly much closer to democracy (at least by Arab standards). Also in both cases the occupation (called “reconstruction” after the civil war) met with heavy resistance and was ultimately discontinued for political reasons. Ultimately Jim Crow was instituted. It is notable that for roughly a century afterwards the civil war was regarded as a tragic mistake.
Why doesn’t the same logic apply to the Civil War?
For one thing, it worked. But I wasn’t there at the time, not to mention not being born at the time, so it’s hard to argue about what I would have said about the Civil War.
For certain values of “worked”. Slavery was abolished, similarly Saddam is no longer in power and Iraq is certainly much closer to democracy (at least by Arab standards). Also in both cases the occupation (called “reconstruction” after the civil war) met with heavy resistance and was ultimately discontinued for political reasons. Ultimately Jim Crow was instituted. It is notable that for roughly a century afterwards the civil war was regarded as a tragic mistake.