Originally Posted by
keesje
What makes it so hard to look at this like a human among humans? Instead of top down, "us against them" "we" won, kind of nationalism? Is it strong or weak? For what I said, why does it matter if I have a Dutch flag in my profile, or a Turkish, American or Chinese one? I served? My race? My religion? Skin? The size of my house? Shouldn't we look at the message instead of the messenger?
I still don't get your basic point. Once Hitler was in power and started his overt aggression - what was the appropriate response? Appeasement was tried - and failed miserably (if anything, it made Hitler more bold). Yes, war is horrible - probably unimaginably so to those of us fortunate enough to have not experienced it first hand. However sometimes the alternative is worse - with WWII being the prime example of that. Once Hitler's motives were clear, there was really
only one choice - surrender or fight. Fortunately for you (and the rest of us), the choice was made to fight - with whatever means were available. Churchill, Harris, and millions of others did whatever they could to defeat and destroy the evil of Nazism. For that they at least deserve our respect, since our lives are much better for their efforts (and millions of lives would not otherwise even exist if Nazism had been allowed to persist and flourish).
Oh, and at the risk of piling on to what Lonewolf posted, there is this little bit:
E.g. why the Russian / Chinese were a kind of grumpy towards us, Europeans. They didn't start.
Russia (or more accurately the Soviet Union) had a
major hand in the start of WWII in Europe. Most historians agree that WWII in Europe started when German invaded Poland - causing France and the UK to declare war on German.
Do you remember what happened next? The Soviets invaded Poland - as had been previously arranged between Stalin and Hitler! The Soviets were on the side of Germany when Germany overran most of Europe (including your home). For the first two years of WWII in Europe, Stalin/Soviet Union were allied with Germany. It was only after Hitler turned his attention east and launched Barbarossa that the the Soviets suddenly became our allies.
Yes, the Soviets suffered horribly during WWII, but a great deal of that can be blamed directly on Stalin.