Terror on the Mississippi: The Sultana Disaster, Part I: Re: Re: Good Job in decribing the events

» Wrap10 - Re: Re: Good Job in decribing the events

I would be interested in knowing now you would look at the Confederate Governments activities of sabotage, does it at all equate to what is happening today? Should the Confederate Government have been involved in this sort of thing?

Curtis,

Interesting question, since it basically asks if 'terror attacks' might be legitimate acts of war.

I guess my answer would be that it depends. If such attacks are made on military targets then it might be considered a 'legitimate' act, although the side that was attacked might not think so. Civilian targets are a far more touchy area.

Among other things, attacks on such targets put the attacker at risk of losing outside support, which may be important to help them further their efforts.

I don't think the Sultana was a victim of sabotage myself, but assuming for the sake of argument it was, as you point out in your article it could have served no useful purpose other than killing those people and possibly inducing terror for anyone travelling the Mississippi River.

Terror for terror's sake, but little else. There was no real military value to the ship, anymore than there was to the World Trade Center or the planes that flew into the towers. The Pentagon is another matter, but I don't think using a civilian airliner to attack a military target is a good way to garner international support.

Something else that comes to mind is the alleged Confederate involvement in the conspiracy to capture or kill President Lincoln. The authors of Come Retribution go to great lengths to show that such a connection did in fact exist, and they may be onto something.

Assuming members of the Confedrate government and/or military were somehow involved, would this be considered an attack on a legitimate military target? Or simply a way to spread terror among the opposing population? I have my own opinion, but I'd be interested to hear what other folks think.

-- posted by Wrap10