Editor, Gazette-Journal:

It is mid-July 2020 and there is a civil war in Afghanistan. If it is to survive as a nation, it needs men of Robert E. Lee’s, U.S. Grant’s and Abraham Lincoln’s caliber. Without them, it has no hope of peace or nationhood.

On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee, with General Grant signed the surrender papers which ended the American Civil War.

That document provided that the men of the Army of the South would not be imprisoned or prosecuted for treason. Southern officers were allowed to keep their sidearms, horses and personal baggage. In addition to his terms, Grant also allowed the defeated men in the ranks to take home their horses and mules to carry out the spring planting, and provided Lee with a supply of food rations for his starving army.

Each officer and man would be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and laws in force where they reside.

It was over, or w...