The civil war did not start out about slavery and misrepresentation of this fact is spread far and wide. Therefore, the battle flag could not have been about slavery either.

The outbreak of the Civil War forever changed the future of the American nation. The war began as a struggle to preserve the Union, not a struggle to free the slaves, but many in the North and South felt that the conflict would ultimately decide both issues. Many slaves escaped to the North in the early years of the war, and several Union generals established abolitionist policies in the land Southern land that they conquered. Congress passed laws permitting the seizure of slaves from the property of rebellious Southerners. On September 22, 1862, following the dramatic Union victory at Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln presented the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

This document decreed that, by the power of the United States armed forces, all slaves in states that were still in rebellion one hundred days after September 22 would be "thenceforward and forever free." Furthermore, Lincoln established an institution through which blacks could join the U.S. Army, an unprecedented level of integration at that time. The United States Colored Troops (USCT) served on many battlefields, won numerous Medals of Honor, and ensured eventual Union victory in the war.

On December 6, 1865, eight months after the end of the Civil War, the United States adopted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which outlawed the practice of slavery.

—Sources: Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War edited by Patricia L. Faust (Harper Perennial, 1991), Encyclopedia of the Civil War edited by John S. Bowman (Dorset Press, 1992), and The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War by Bruce Catton (Bonanza Books, 1982).

nope,the Genocide went on all the way to the bitter end!
all the way through the War,Gypsy,Homosexuals,Cripples,Mental Patients,Jews,all of them!
Hitler and his Henchmen,Himmler,Frank Heydrich had no intention to stop,it was Reichs-Policy!
Nothing to do with the Allies!
Besides,Hitler went to war with the world!

Well the PC crowd have gone into what I call 'full retard' mode over this tragedy. Since Roof is seen in several pics with the stars and bars, the MSM has now declared it to be THE REASON for the crime. So, by extension, full retard mode has found its way into the corporate world seeing Wal-Mart, Amazon, eBay saying they will ban Confederate flag items.

Interesting.

If I go to Amazon and eBay sites, they are still happily selling tens of thousands of NAZI items!!! Uniforms, deactivated explosives, gun parts, daggers. You know, culturally inoffensive items that wouldn't cause any 80 year old Jew even a millisecond of discomfort were you to show up at their door decked out in Waffen SS gear!

Walmart? A mere 2,700 items with Nazi themes or references. One of them recounts experiments of the Nazi doctors in concentration camps! FINE night time reading for the smallfry.

Look people, we all get offended by stuff for different reasons. I'm going to suggest these companies are a little more than hypocritical by continuing to rake in the bucks off the Nazis who are guilty of far more heinous acts than any Southerner has ever committed.

Thus endeth the sermon.

the nazis went after jews,, jews got their own country

now germans and jews choose what will represent them, I suppose

however, neither israel or germany are in america,,,

stores in america, have american consumers to appease

Well sorry if Nazi blonde haired, blue eyed, whites ONLY, WORLD DOMINATION is not racist enough for you to be concerned about. It doesn't matter if you think this is a Made In America issue or not.

There is a stunning level of hypocrisy when companies fall all over themselves pretending to care about an issue when they happily make money off of other blatantly racist items.

Last I checked, those who fly the Confederate battle flag didn't kill SIX MILLION African Americans, plunge the planet into war, and attempt to rule it for the next thousand years.

If people are going to be morally outraged by this allegedly racist flag and all the hatred that it stands for, well you better sharpen the pencil and add a few more things to the list.

Time to ban the Koran. Yup. It's a book of religiously inspired and justified killing. Kill the Jews, Christians, Sabians, and Polytheists. Kill the non-believers, and those who do not believe in Allah and his Prophet. Simple and declarative sentences. It specifies individual and identifiable groups of people for targeted attack. The very definition of hate crimes.

That offends me, so out the door they go. Deport Muslims, board up the mosques, and burn the Korans. Don't want to do that? Then you are encouraging hate crimes and have NO business whatsoever demanding removal of any flag or symbol that you personally don't like if you are not willing to do it for someone else.

Thus endeth the sermon.

noone claimed they care about 'issues'

I stated companies pander to CONSUMERS

so the 'issues' their consumers are most clostly attached to or affected by will affect their decisions

thing that happened or happen in other countries are rarely on the radar,,,,,except in THOSE countries,,

the sad thing is that stupid people think these stores are supporting their cause when in all reality, they could care less... give it six weeks after this flag whohaw calms down, and the flags will be right back on their shelves... it's only about money, and nothing else...

http://www.youngcons.com/major-retailers-ban-confederate-flag-small-business-owners-see-sales-skyrocket/

lol... stupid people thinking taking down a flag will change/solve anything... just gets dumber and dumber...

but obarry likes this kind of silliness, that way he can do things that people wouldn't want because they are so focused on the stupid flag instead of paying attention to the government....

This thread would be more accurately titled "Pitiful Confederate Apologist Lies."

The thing to really look closely at, is what the semi-secret agenda of these modern liars actually is. They aren't REALLY trying to "set the Historical Record Straight for the sake of Truth and Understanding," they are trying to rewrite history with lies, in order to further a set of modern day agendas, entirely unrelated to the Cause.

The flags are just the start. Monuments and memorials next.

companies ORDERED by feds to stop selling confederate flag, because they are "offensive".



but yet we can still buy nazi flags, as if they're not "offensive".

fact..it is a racist symbol
truth..it should be taken down

fact: no it is not a racist symbol, read a history book.

stupid liberal PC veiwpoints would be another...

I bet they are in JEWISH countries,,,

but this is AMERICA,, while we recognize awful things around the world,, we are most impacted by those AT HOME,,

ummm... this is a Jewish country... just saying... look at Hollywood, any bank, hospitals, and jewelry store...

there is a reason those groups are part of the 1%
http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/

I've read more history books than u

i think it's more the fact the the jews are over it, in a sense, where blacks are not, in a bigger sense...