'Almon listed several reasons Lee is no different from Washington. "Both rebelled against the ruling government," the e-mail reads, adding, "Both saved America."'

I must disagree, especially with the word "saved." One can imagine far more appropriate words.

Both men were turn-coats and were alert to which way the wind blew. The United Empire Loyalists were right to flee from a revolutionary nation that had not got itself in order -- and which still has not. 

Congratulations to Putin for exploiting the rift that still exists between the rich and the poor, the men and the women, the whites and the blacks and other disenfranchised groups in "America." The USA will never be morally great "again" (I doubt it ever was) until it elects a compassionate president with an intelligent and all-inclusive mind. Peace and reconciliation processes are imperatives there too. 

Why enter into NAFTA procedures with a nation that is in such dreadful turmoil? Why go down with the Robert E. Lee?