Help Me Understand

Could someone please explain some peoples fascination with failure? Why do some folks look at people who lost wars as heroes and idols and feel like they need to commemorate them? In magazines I see all sorts of decorative plates and wall plaques and lamps and…. Well you name it and they have something displaying rebel pride and has the southern flag on it I have seen stuff that says what a great leader that Robert E Lee was and ditto about Stonewall Jackson. Don't get me wrong these men were pretty amazing in fighting for there home states and going up against the north but bottom line is they lost. The north won and we did have leaders on that side of the line as well and here is the crazy part, they are the winners but I have yet to see a jacket that has a mural on the back dedicated to Grant. Or how about a plaque dedicated to the President that won the war in his own country, after all he did free how many slaves? Sure he was shot later but he had a pretty damn good run, if you really want to be impressed read about the stuff that was going on in Lincolns' personal life up to and during the Civil War. If it is a pride thing about being a southern state I would think that they would rather have something that resembles success rather than failure which in my mind was what I think of when I see the Rebel flag. The proof is in the fact that Old Glory is the banner hoisted all across this nation , it is the flag we pledge our allegiance to. Not the Rebel Flag.

Another example is people that look to the Germans during WWII as something great and often refer to their war tactics. Please correct me if I am wrong but I believe we gave them a pretty good kick in the ass as well. Didn't we defeat the Nazis? Why do people want to have their uniforms and patches. We are all pretty much on the same page when we put Hitler in the jack ass category so why is their military looked at different? They lost, we won. Perhaps we should have dropped a couple big ol' bombs on them because I don't see near the infatuation with the Japanese and they came closer to beating us than the Germans did.

In both of these cases I totally exempt collectables, they are a piece of history and I get that but the stuff I am referring to in the case of the Germans is military surplus junk. The confederate stuff is all modern day made garbage. I don't get it. Why not commemorate the heroes, the winners?

If I am wrong please forgive me and perhaps help me out and explain this oddity to me.