[Culturechat] Public Opinion in Europe of the US

[WesTexas@aol.com]

In regard to the Nazis, the real scandal was not the cooperation of a few 
Swiss bankers with the Nazis in WW II, the real scandal was the failure of 
the Europeans to stop Hitler in the early Thirties.   I find it particularly 
ironic that the Europeans--who failed to stop Hitler--are critical of the 
US's effort to stop a dictator who is arguably as bad as or worse than 
Hitler.  If memory serves, the Europeans tried "Peace in Our Time."  As 
Churchill said, the Europeans could have had honor or peace, they chose 
peace, and ended up with neither honor nor peace--because they failed to stop 
Hitler when they could have easily done so.  

One interesting question is, what to the Iraqi people think?  Following is a 
recent news item. 

Excerpt From Newsweek:  IN A REPORT released early this month, International 
Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, found that most Iraqis interviewed 
support the idea of an invasion, as well as U.S. occupation during the 
transition to a post-Saddam government. Iraqis have had it with more than a 
decade of impoverishment, isolation and fear, says the study’s researcher who 
asked not to be named. “I found very few people who were against American 
intervention,” the researcher says. “People are depressed, exhausted. They 
can’t take it anymore.” Those against intervention, she says, enjoyed 
privileges under the regime, or they feared Americans would call for a rising 
against Saddam, then abandon it (as in the aftermath of the Kuwait war in 
1991). But a young Baghdad architect summarizes the majority opinion: “We do 
not particularly want a U.S. military strike, but we do want a political 
change. We have nothing to lose, and it cannot be any worse than our current 
condition."