Re: LOTR and 20th Century Western European Prejudices

"coyotes morgan mair fheal greykitten tomys des anges"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> germany lost the war in the winter of 1941-1942
> japan lost it a few months later at coral sea and midway
>
> if the usa had not intervened in europe
> it wouldve end nearly the same
> cept the iron curtain would be on the north sea instead of germany

Why is it that so many people on Usenet, in this group and in the wwii
group, for example, can't get the idea that many of those (occasionally
irritating)  "The United States Saved The World In World War Two" posts and
arguments are at least partially due, in reaction, to the above attitude,
which indicates that the war in Europe would have 'end [sic] nearly the same
... if the usa [sic] had not intervened in europe [sic].'

I've seen this attitude so many times before, almost always from either
Europeans or from people from a former member of the British Commonwealth of
Nations. It usually belittles the involvement and contribution of America in
the European Theatre during WWII.

A lot of Americans died in a war which occurred far from our soil, a war
which threatened us to a much lower extent than it threatened Europe. To
oversimplify it slightly, they died for you Europeans, who often seem
ungrateful. Now, I understand that, as someone pointed out already elsewhere
in this thread (Devine Wind), the US 'had its own selfish reasons, as do all
nations, especially in times of war,' to go and fight and die in WWII, and
that the US benefited greatly for its actions in the European Theatre,
gaining thereby a strong foothold in post-war Western Europe. Nevertheless,
it should be clear that the contributions of the US to the European theater
in particular and to the whole war in general were at least as great as
anyone else's, and, probably on the whole greater than any other single
contribution.