Thanks for clearing this up. I thought you were using national (not personal but vicarious) suffering of the past to make sure there was no understanding of national intentions in the present. I see now that was not your meaning, though it seems that irony and sarcasm helped to cloud your words.
The main reason for that stupid anti-americanism here in Europe, was above all, LACK OF UNDERSTANDING. Just like with those prejudices about Europe on the other side of the Atlantic... but that's exactly why I find it better to talk to each other.
Yes, a conversation is a good thing if it brings understanding of the argument into focus. We may not always agree, but at least we should try to be clear about what our differing points of view are. We may even find areas of agreement.
I do believe that Germans and Americans have more in common than not, even though our national histories are quite different. The ideas upon which America is founded are European to the core in that that is where they originated from. And though those European ideas developed in somehwhat directions in American soil than they did in Europe itself, we are still more alike than not.
I too, like so many (but by far not enough) of my compatriots, agree that we "have more in common than not, even though our national histories are quite different" and that although "those European ideas developed in somehwhat directions in American soil than they did in Europe itself, we are still more alike than not." That is my firm belief and also my vision for the future.
The regrettable recent estrangements between the US and the EU always remind me of Abe Lincoln's closing words of his first inaugural adress:
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, [...], will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
I believe this ideal also holds true with regard to the American-European cooperation.