[gobucks]

American soldiers tend not to be afraid of being laughed at...and based on my conversations w/ Europeans, yes, the war years informed them to an extent. But, the lack of courage is not due to being afraid of bullets then over there.

The "modern" Europe is a Lord-of-the-Flies land of comedy, and people for the most part are utterly terrified of being laughed at if they say or support something that is viewed as "wrong". Much of European history is about how wrong they have been about so much. Hasn't changed much.

Being laughed at is seen as a flag .... sort of like the guy on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where he points at the last non-invaded body, and makes a hideous screech to alert the other aliens of the target.

In this case, most Europeans point and say, cuckoo...cuckoo, while twirling their fingers about their temples. And the laughter thus breeds the cowardice... That's why indecisiveness plagues this continent.

[wizardoz]

I believe it. Europeans are closed-minded, parochial, and defensive... they'd rather be dead than wrong.