Originally Posted by
Jenns
I am not "comparing" anything here, I am just saying that "I followed orders" is not a valid excuse for war crimes. In the decades after 1945 Europe evolved into something really great but there is a prevailing mentality in the UK that is completely stuck in the 1930s. What else (besides an infinite amount of poor taste) could have led to the erection of the statue in question in the first place?
In 1992 the rest of Europe was looking forward to travelling and trading without border controls and to the Euro. In a process that has no equivalent in human history we had successfully put the animosities of the past centuries behind us. Yet some idiots needed to erect a statue that symbolizes them more than hardly anything else? Weren't you ashamed?
That is the most sanctimonious twaddle imaginable. Not only that, it is very dangerous sanctimonious twaddle. You remind me of those who surrounded Greenham Common to 'stop war'. All they did was offer comfort to those who would start wars. As to your enthusiasm for a borderless Europe, as already stated, you are late to the party. A little stout French Emperor and an Austrian Corporal had already tried it and failed. Third time lucky? I wouldn't put any money on it. Save your anti Brit attitudes for elsewhere. We were offered a deal by the Fuhrer, turned him down, and with the help of Bomber Command defeated his tidy minded ideas of Germania. When you start planning the lives of other peoples you tend to get push back, so don't!