Lincoln, Putin, and Yankee Hyopcrisy

At the writing of this article, the ongoing struggle between Ukraine and Russia has most people’s attention.  While prayerfully hoping for a peaceful settlement of this conflict, it is difficult to overlook the actual hypocrisy of the Federal government and U. S. media as they deal with the reported issues such as “saving the union,” “secession,” and “war crimes.”  It is the purpose of this article to expose Yankee hypocrisy as it relates to these issues and not to suggest support for one or the other belligerents in this most unfortunate war.

A brief historical background is helpful to better understand this conflict.  The histories of Russia and Ukraine are very closely related.  Around 862, A.D., the Rus people settled in what is now Ukraine.  From this settlement the nations of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine can trace their beginnings.  Today the language of these three nations is very similar and they share a common attachment to the Russian Orthodox Church.  Depending on how one judges the “beginning” of Russia and Ukraine, their history predates the United States anywhere from 300 to 900 years.  These Eastern European people possess a long and complicated history; therefore, it is very difficult to make definitive statements on the correctness of either party’s position in this conflict.  Remember that the political establishment that promised, “Read my lips, no new taxes,” lied.  The same political establishment who promised “Shovel ready jobs,” lied.  The political establishment that assured America that the Iraqi war was necessary because of “weapons of mass destruction” were proven wrong.   The same government and media that promised that face-masks would protect from viruses were wrong.  Is it any wonder that according to a recent Gallup poll, 64% of Americans have no faith in the media’s fairness?[i]  At only a 18% approval, the Federal government’s approval rating is even lower than the media’s pitiful rating.[ii]  Americans appear to trust a used car salesman more than they trust the government or the media!  We should be careful about adopting the talking points of such underrated groups as the media and Federal government.

Using current events, let’s see how the current war (March 2022) exposes Yankee hypocrisy.  Three areas of Yankee hypocrisy will be addressed: (1) War to save the Union in both Lincoln’s War and the current war, (2) both Lincoln’s and Putin’s support of secession and rejection of secession, (3) Lincoln, Putin, and Ukrainian war crimes.

Lincoln believed that the Federal government had the right to use any method to “save the Union.”  Today when Putin declares that he only desires to secure the union of traditional Russia, the Yankee Empire pronounces Russia as an “aggressor” nation.  Yet, in 1861, the Federal government in an “aggressive” move invaded a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America and did to the South the very same thing they are condemning Putin for doing.  The American press routinely condemns Putin for doing all in his power to “save the union” of the Russian people, while glorifying in the sadist acts committed by Lincoln during the Federal government’s invasion, conquest, and occupation of the Confederate States of America.  Since the States of the Union had, up unto Lincoln’s election, been denoted as “free, independent, and sovereign States,” Lincoln had much less right to invade the thirteen Southern States than Putin had to invade Ukraine.  An example of Yankee hypocrisy!

In March 1836, Texas declared its secession from Mexico.  The United States not only supported that secession movement but in 1845, Texas was admitted into the Union. Sixteen years later, the same Federal government that supported Texas secession from Mexico, opposed Texas’ secession from the Federal Union.  In 1903, sixty-seven years after supporting Texas secession from Mexico and forty-two years after DENYING Texas the right to secede from the Federal union, the Federal government supported the secession of Panama from Columbia.  Theodore Roosevelt championed this secession in order to secure the Isthmus of Panama to build the Panama Canal. Remember, Putin asserts that he has the right to preserve the historic, cultural, and religious homeland of the Russian people.  In a similar vein, Lincoln asserted that he had the right to preserve the Union because of its historic roots in all of the territory of the Union.  Here we see an example of not only Yankee hypocrisy but also Yankee arrogance when Yankees support and oppose secession depending on when it benefits the Yankee Empire.  This is an example of Yankee hypocrisy and Yankee arrogance.

The political leadership of the Federal government, fully backed by the media, congratulates the Ukrainian secession from Russian influence while rejecting the right of the people of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass (also spelled, Donbas) to secede from Ukraine.  The people of the Donbass region are decidedly in favor of either independence from what they consider a corrupt and discriminatory Ukraine government or outright annexation (like Texas in 1845) to “Mother Russia.”[iii]    Here again we see Yankee Hypocrisy at work.  While congratulating Ukraine’s secession from Russia, they are condemning the Donbass region and other regions for seceding from Ukrainian rule.  While approving Texas annexation to the United States in 1845, the Yankee Empire arrogantly denies the same right of annexation to the pro-Russian people of the Donbass region.

Unlike the days before camera phones and the internet, the harrows of modern warfare are daily brought into our homes.  Without a doubt, much civilian death and suffering has been caused by the Ukrainian war.  In the predominately Russian eastern provinces, similar attacks upon the pro-Russian inhabitants go unreported.  According to a report in The Citizen, published February 2022, as many as 9,000 citizens of the Donbass region have been killed as a result of the effort to prevent the secession of the Donbass region from Ukraine.[iv]  This number includes many children.  Unfortunately, these statistics are considered “Russian disinformation” by our government and media—you know, those folk who are so trustworthy themselves!    As usual, the truth is the first victim of any war.  While the Federal government and its media lackeys are quick to condemn the “death and suffering” of Ukrainian victims of war, they extol and praise Lincoln’s rabble that committed even more hideous crimes against the civilian population of the Confederate States of America.  As one historian noted, “Warring against noncombatants came to be the stated policy and practice of the United States”[v] as they attempted to subdue the Confederate States of America.  As this historian noted, it became Lincoln’s and the United States’ practice of “Shelling and burning of cities, forced expulsions, wholesale plundering…even murder all became routine.”[vi]

In 1864, General Sherman laid siege to Atlanta, Georgia.  Sherman aimed 223 cannons toward the city and proceeded to fire upon the defenders as well as the women and children of Atlanta.  One Atlanta surgeon noted that during the shelling he had performed 107 amputations on men, women, and children.  Yes, children did not escape the wrath of this Yankee butcher.  It was Sherman who speaking of Southerners said, “There is a class of people men women and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order.”[vii]  Sherman also said that for those who believed in secession, “death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better.”[viii] When secession is good for the Yankee Empire, they support it but if it is not good for the Yankee Empire, they oppose secession.  More Yankee hypocrisy.

The political establishment informs Americans that we should be outraged at the thought of Putin shutting down opposition newspapers and imprisoning political opponents.  They condemn Putin’s actions while overlooking the CIA’s role in overthrowing a democratically elected Ukrainian president.[ix] Well, well, talk about Yankee hypocrisy!  During Lincoln’s invasion of the Confederacy, all civil rights and Constitutional protections were cancelled for citizens of the South who, according to Yankee logic, were still citizens of the Union.  But how did Lincoln treat his political opponents in the North?  Lincoln shutdown over 300 newspapers, illegally suspended the writ of habeas corpus, censored telegraph communications, illegally created the state of West Virginia, opened and read private mail, and imprisoned political opponents.  Putin is a light-weight when compared to Lincoln.

One opposition newspaper editor that Lincoln imprisoned was Francis Key Howard, the grandson of Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner.  The ultimate sad irony of this incident is that Howard, Key’s grandson, was imprisoned in Fort McHenry, the fort which the British were bombarding when Key wrote what became the United States’ National Anthem.  Lincoln not only imprisoned his political opponents but in the case of Ohio Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham, Lincoln had the military police arrest the congressman and had him tried before a military court.  As Vallandigham noted in his defense, he was a civilian, not a member of the military or militia and therefore, the court had absolutely no Constitutional authority to hear his case or impose punishment.  The Yankee kangaroo court was not impressed with Howard’s appeal to the limitations of the Constitution and preceded to banish him from the United States.  Putin could take lessons from Lincoln!  Nevertheless, the political establishment and the media continue to denounce Putin while heaping praise upon America’s number one tyrant, Lincoln.

As declared in the beginning of this article, the assessing of guilt or innocence for the belligerents in the Ukrainian war is not the objective of this article.  We do take note of the fact that the truth is always a victim in war.  For Americans in general and Southerners in particular, the rank hypocrisy of the Yankee Empire, not only in its war upon the South but as it relates to what General Lee referred to as an “aggressive abroad” foreign policy, is worth studying and understanding.

[i] Megan Brenan, American’s Trust in Media Dips to Second Lowest on Record, Gallup Poll, 10/7/21 Americans’ Trust in Media Dips to Second Lowest on Record (gallup.com)

[ii] Megan Brenan, Congressional Approval Rating Sinks to 18% as Democrats Sour Further Gallup Poll, 1/21/22https://news.gallup.com/poll/389096/congressional-approval-sinks-democrats-sour-further.aspx

[iii] Charles Scaliger, The New American, ‘Russia VS Ukraine: Is It Our Fight?’ 2/14/22 www.TheNewAmerican.com p. 12.

[iv] ‘How Many Lives has the War in Donbas Taken?’ The Citizen, 2/20/22, How many lives has the war in Donbass taken? – The Citizen

[v] Walter Brian Cisco, War Crimes Against Southern Civilians (Pelican Publishing Co., Gretna, LA: 2008), 16.

[vi] Cisco, Ibid.

[vii] William Sherman as cited in, Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. XXXIX, pt. II, p. 132.  For more info on Yankee Atrocities, see, Kennedy and Kennedy The South Was Right! 3^rd ed., (Shotwell Publishing Co., Columbia, SC: 2020), Ch. 17.

[viii] Sherman, Ibid, Vol. XXXII, pt. 11, p. 280-81.

[ix] Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke, The Epoch Times ‘Events That led up to War in Ukraine,’ The Epoch Media Group, El Monte, CA, 3/9/22, p. A6.

Walter D. (Donnie) Kennedy

Walter D. (Donnie) Kennedy was born and reared in Mississippi. Donnie moved to Louisiana at the age of 19. He received his bachelor’s degree form the University of Louisiana, Monroe, La. and graduated Charlotte Memorial Medical Center School of Anesthesia, Charlotte, NC. Donnie and his twin brother, Ron, are best known for their bestselling book, The South Was Right! having sold more than 130,000 copies as of 2014. The Kennedy Twins have written eight other books since the release of The South Was Right! as well as editing, annotating and republishing an 1825 textbook on the Constitution by William Rawle. Donnie is the author of Myths of American Slavery and Rekilling Lincoln, (release date, Spring 2015). Both Donnie and his twin brother have served as commander of the Louisiana Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans. They have received awards and special recognition from numerous conservative and Southern organizations. The Kennedy Twins have been interviewed by numerous media outlets such as British Broadcasting Corporation, French National T.V., Al Jazeera, and numerous American radio and T.V. hosts.

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