Another "Dumb" War

Barack Obama is over in Africa, paying homage to history. A personal and political odyssey among the greats.

One of the points of studying history is to learn the facts so they can illuminate the present. But don't hold your breath. The Senator has presumably been the beneficiary of a politically correct study of American history, given his recent remarks on Iraq.

We can safely assume there is no mention of another "dumb" war that actually defeated slavery in Sen. Obama's childhood history book. Michael Barone, RCP:

We are taught that some of the Founding Fathers were slaveholders -- and are left ignorant of their proclamations of universal liberties and human rights. We are taught that Japanese-Americans were interned in World War II -- and not that American military forces liberated millions from tyranny. To be sure, the great mass of Americans tend to resist these teachings. By the millions they buy and read serious biographies of the Founders and accounts of the Greatest Generation. But the teachings of our covert enemies have their effect.

Of course, this distorts history. We are taught that American slavery was the most evil institution in human history. But every society in history has had slavery. Only one society set out to and did abolish it. The movement to abolish first the slave trade and then slavery was not started by the reason-guided philosophies of 18th century France. It was started, as Adam Hochschild documents in his admirable book "Bury the Chains," by Quakers and Evangelical Christians in Britain, followed in time by similar men and women in America. The slave trade was ended not by Africans, but by the Royal Navy, with aid from the U.S. Navy even before the Civil War.

We can probably also safely assume there will be no acknowledgement of Britain's and America's real and positive contribution to history on this trip by the young Democrat Senator. That's not the point of his trip, is it.