The fellow, as a businessman, has a more comprehensive understanding of cause-and-effect (historically) than your average German, by virtue of nothing more than his standing.Originally Posted by mogadishu
In a country such as Germany, where the norm is, I think, a 32-hour work-week, and state-sponsored medical programs, and such-basically your comprehensive "nanny-state", there seems to exist a presumption of enlightened existence and contempt for what one might call the "American way of life"; and I believe that is the genesis for any over-arching public opinion (in Germany) that America is wrong for acting peremptorily in the Mideast.
It is one thing for any nation to bemoan the strength of another nation which perceives a "call-to-duty", as it were, but quite another to actually hear that call, and have the power to act, even if others may deem such action to be imperialistic in intent.
Having said that, I hope you will resist the urge to draw any parallels between our invasion of Iraq and Germany's "expansion" into Chechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) and Poland in the name of "liebensraum"; although you might not see a difference, I do.
As to the end result of WWII, whether or not any are even willing to attribute Germany's defeat (and thereby the survival of France and Britain, et. al.) to the apparently over-late intervention of America, I think the end result speaks well for the U.S.; if you disagree with this last, perhaps you would speculate as to the result absent American participation?
Vid-
If there were errors in translation, or liberties taken with the original text (I thank ilw for pointing these out), I don't feel any errors recounted so far sufficiently change the intent of the piece to a degree warranting a need for retraction or repudiation.
Thanks for asking, nonetheless.
Bookmarks