"I guess you weren't around for the civil war. Oh well, that was American blood spilled on American soil, so we can ignore that as insignificant.
The carnage you talk about in Europe was of your own making, so why do demand instantaneous sympathy?"
I don't! Why should I demand sympathy? I just pointed out that Europeans have their very own traumas that influence their way of making decisions.
And no, I haven't forgotten the Civil war.
Civil War dead: approx. 560,000
World War II dead: more than 56,000,000
See the difference? That's only about 100 times as many.
Ok, I have to admit, it were only 20,000,000 in present day EU countries (if you also count the victims of the Spanish civil war).
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/casualty.html
Very well said, and finally a line of posts that can take us somewhere.
The father, or grandfather, of the EU is of course der Herr von Linz, He Who Must Not Be Named.
Father more in the Darth Vader sense, not the George Washington one, to be sure-but father nonetheless.
The whole EU project is a gigantic reaction formation to the collapse of the Third Reich-not the physical conquest and destruction by Russia and America, that's better forgotten-but to the loss of the Dream in hundreds of millions of European hearts-the dream of a Third Way, the dream of a solution to modernity that was not monarchical or clerical, the dream of solidarity instead of competition, gemeinschaft instead of geselleschaft.
The survivors and their children are still trying to mine something of value out of that bunker near Potsdamerplatz, and their failure is going to have longlasting and unpredictable consequences.
The American Civil War was one of the bloodiest in the history of the world up to that point. Sherman's march through the south was devastating--every field of crops, building, village, and city burned to the ground in the wake of his path. We Americans are quite familiar with the suffering and carnage and hell of war.
Ok, I have to admit, it were only 20,000,000 in present day EU countries (if you also count the victims of the Spanish civil war).
Yes, I do see. You want to play a numbers game. You are saying that you Europeans have suffered so much and therefore we Americans just don't understand you.
The only reason you Europeans haven't continued to kill millions over the past 60 years is the presence of American troops in your country. But don't worry, those American troops will be gone sometime over the next 10 years. Let us hope that your great suffering will have given you some sense of maturity not to repeat your past predilections.