Unless I'm missing something the ‘alr-right’ who turned up on Friday to protest at the statues being taken down main concern wasn’t with the historical context or fear of airbrushing history, they weren’t the militant wing of the Smithsonian. If that is the case then I take it the unite the right group would have no problem with other statues and memeorials been placed in town squares to remember the slaves ,segregation lynching’s and other aspects of the Southern states ‘culture’ to help place the General Lee statue in context.
This was racist and white supremacist groups wanting to defend their symbols of power and those that supported a vile system.

One supporter of hacking argued that without it "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week's practice -Blackheath secretary at first meeting of the F.A

They are statues of historical figures who defended the southern way of life which at that time included the legal slavery.
I undrstand that some so called neo Nazis might see them as a symbol of white power but many others probably don't.
Either way, I find the preoccupation with statues by all sides totally knuckleheaded. Removing them is pandering to dumbassery as is celebrating them as a symbol of white confederate resistance. The South lost and it ain't coming back.
Beyond that, I see no difference between having a statue of a Confederate hero to one of Oliver Cromwell, William Wallace or Sean Russell.

I would agree with you if the statues were neutral pieces of art or symbols of long resolved wars and conflicts but evidently they are not to the people living Virginia and other southern states in the U.S.

We have largely come to terms with both Wallace and Cromwell as symbols , Cromwell I would say is seen for his role in curbing the power of the asserting the role and power of parliament but that his reign led to tyranny, but those issues are resolved absolute monarchist and puritans are no longer kicking off on St Stephens green. Yes Scottish independence is a still a live issue but it is pursued through legal and democratic means it. Wallace and Cromwell statues no longer have the associated symbolism. A statue of Cromwell would still in Ireland and Sean Russell’s still does cause controversy .
Yes , the confederate statues are of historical figures but their power and symbolism has not been lost in the passing off time, one aspect of the south’s ‘way of life’ might have died at the end of the civil war but the ideas of racial superiority at it’s core lived on.

One supporter of hacking argued that without it "you will do away with the courage and pluck of the game, and I will be bound to bring over a lot of Frenchmen who would beat you with a week's practice -Blackheath secretary at first meeting of the F.A

I understand your point, but statues and monuments do nothing except sit there getting green. It's people that are the problem. All the time we have Nazis, anti Nazis, identity politics, Black Power etc, we have a problem.
Knowing humans, we will always have a problem.

Yeah, and this is the bone of contention. One wonders precisely why the statues were erected.
Was it to commemorate the glory of Southern resistance and Southern culture or was it to celebrate a time when Black people were slaves?
I don't know the answer, but I am sure that statues aren't the problem. It's people with small brains.

Let them be.

When you see a statue pulled down you generally feel it is a revision of history. Be it Stalin, Saddam, or Thatcher.

"Everything is air-droppable at least once."

"When the going gets tough, the tough call for close air support."