Lt. Col. Allen West warned Saturday that Americans toppling Confederate statues or defacing infamous historic symbols were missing the point of that time in U.S. history.
In an interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend” with hosts Jedediah Bila, Pete Hegseth, and Griff Jenkins, the former Florida congressman advised that angry desecration of longstanding monuments to racist historical figures was not the path to take.
“The right thing is for everyone to understand those — and George Santayana once said — those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” he urged.
“History is not there for you to like or dislike, Jedediah. It is there for you to learn from,” he told Bila.
Following weeks of protests against police brutality and unjust killings of Black Americans like George Floyd, many — including state government officials — have turned to look inward at their own communities. They’ve responded by toppling depictions of figures like Christopher Columbus in Minnesota, removing Kentucky’s Jefferson Davis, and graffitiing a Virginia memorial of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Some in the military have also called for changes to bases named after members of the Confederacy.
Many make the argument that removing the statues and names themselves would not erase the history — nor could it erase racism — but that it would relieve the pain felt by the families of those slaughtered in the 400 years since African slaves were first brought to America every time they looked at these representations.
West explained that as a young officer in the U.S. Army he had served at places like Fort Bragg — named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg — and commanded a battalion at Fort Hood in Texas which was named after Confederate General John Bell Hood. – READ MORE
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