Quote:
Originally Posted by Exitus Acta Probat
A common refrain I often hear, regarding our participation in WWII is, "It's a good thing we went to Europe and defeated the National Socialists, or else we'd all be speaking German!"
As opposed to speaking non-Castilian Spanish? How is that any better? And how is it that being invaded by people from nations to the south any better than being invaded by Germans? Are Germans notorious for destroying health care systems, educational systems, public assistance programs, etc.?
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The question is interesting. The US was fairly anti-war and neutral on the British, especially since at the time he ruled over an empire with tens of millions of subjugated subjects. At the same time, the vast majority of Americans claimed German ethnicity (still the case although much less so).
Well, let's see. Our allies...
France: their liberation costs tens of thousands of American lives but ironically earned eternal hate for all things American. Also, they are tricky economic rivals who have always shown a willingness to violate international agreements when they might gain an upper hand. France continues to presume its international prestige as if it were 1860, when the French were arguably the most powerful military on earth.
UK: The "special relationship" was due almost wholly to Churchill, and revived by both Thatcher and Blair. Otherwise, the UK politicians really do not like the Americans, not do the British people. Lend-lease, literally the lifeline that is responsible for the existence of both the UK and France and free Europe today went against the will of the American people at the time.
Let's look at our main allies (defined by those at important conferences (Cairo, Yalta, Potsdam) and by the allied military occupation of the Axis lands).
UK & France: Since the end of WW2, the US has involved in some nasty cleaning up of god-awful messes created by both colonial ambitions: Indochina (France); Palestine (UK); rest of Middle East (UK and France). It is amazing that we ever caught up in supporting such embittered "allies."
USSR: Before even the war ended, the new "war" had begun. So much destruction was wrought in the Third World through the Cold War chessmatch. Now? Russia is an unstable enigma, perpetually within one personality of reverting to its autocratic ways.
China/Korea: Mislead by a meglomaniac in Chaing Kai Shek and their pro-Western lobbyists in the US, we naively poured billions into the Nationalists only to see them tear China apart whilst letting the Japanese have their way. All that naive goodwill resulted in a war involving Chinese forces in Korea, where the efforts of the US have resulted in the embitterment of the Koreans toward the US, paralleling the love-hate relationship with the US. Despite China being our only rival in the world, they also have a lot of respect for the US, both in terms of ideals and in terms of power.
But back to Europe. A hard look at European rhetoric, street opinions, and corporate competition today, it is not easy to see any silver lining to the War, other than for a temporary burst to the middle class.
Going forward there appears to be no love lost and as such the moral and ethical reasoning that underpinned our participation in WW2 seems harder to justify ex post.
The Europe that remains the US allies are unfortunately the hardest to reach: Poland & the Czech Republic, who understand full well the consequences of political correctness and spineless policies.
Our allies grow thin. I am all in favor of shifting the focus of the US to Asia and letting Europe twist in the wind. I am also in favor of a new relationship with Latin America, so that the Canadian-US alliance can reap the benefits of 500 million Latin Americans who remain fairly distant.
Yet aside from Poles and Czechs, I wonder why the US should remain a military presence. Let Europe live under the shadow of Mother Russia again and let them resume their tribal warfare. The US benefitted most when Europe was at war with itself, so let them. In fact, raise some trade barriers against the Eurozone to put the same kind of tension on them that we now feel from their anti-Americanism.
Let us rebuild our identity while removing both the umbrella of our military aid and the veil of the special friendship which has been proven to be one of temporal convenience.
Rebuild the US
Integrate with the inevitable: the Asian Pacific economy
Let Europe bear the costs of the existence and remove any pretensions of a friendship long gone.
S.