They may have started plenty but we were always there whenever the "right" people called us. For all we know most Europeans were probably just pawns in whatever game their rulers were playing and in many cases didn't even believe the cause was justified.
Let us hope and pray that with the plethora of information now available to the average person we are better able to know the truth and base decisions on fact and truth and not what we are told is fact or truth.
Remember 40,000,000 Europeans died in the war over there,it must have been horrendous.
Out of the 40 million europeans that died in WWII, 25 million of them went into the showers and ovens of the Third Reich. 6 million of them were non-combatants from the start (the Jews). Nearly 10 million Germans died at the hands of the Russians. We lost a bunch, but nowhere near what their nations lost. That is what happens when you sit on your hands and pretend that the creepy next door neighbor is - just because he's a loner that seldom says anything to anyone, and he keeps odd company doesn't mean he's a serial killer. That's why we can no longer afford to appease anyone, not in this day where millions can be killed in the blink of an eye. The best defense is once again the best offense.
The disconnect between europe and the US is the same as it is between the American right and left: Rugged individualism. The EU and the left don't believe in it, and we do. They prefer to be led, or better yet to just leave things as they are. We don't like letting others or the rest of the world deciding our actions for us. We prefer to act rather than react. That is why the left wants the UN to control us: They are not capable of truly leading and are unwilling to accept all of the duties involved with maintaining personal liberty. They trade liberty for what they perceive to be security in numbers.