Re. Why do they hate us?
Reader comment on item: Londonistan Follies
in response to reader comment: Why do they hate us?

Submitted by concerned (Italy), Jun 3, 2006 at 14:59

To be honest, I really can't speak for the British simply because I'm not British, but maybe because my father served in WWII, some help in answering your question, at least in part, may come out into the open. Please, Octavio, et.al., I'm only speaking from MY personal opinions, so I don't pretend to give "expert" advice, or "infallible" answers! Just my personal opinion; can we in true friendship agree on this?

When I was growing up, my father carried on and on about his experiences as a fighter pilot and bomber during the war. At times, to be sadly honest, most of the time, I was just sick and tired of it all, since to my child's and later adolescent's mind, it was all over and done with. Why continually bring it back up again? My father, I guess from his war experiences, always harbored a hatred, or at least, a despising attitude toward Europe and Europeans in general. Many times he compared Europeans to cannabalistic tribes, often saying that"...all they know what to do is to kill each other." He had a deep hatred and distrust of Germans, so please forgive me for having mentioned this, my German friends. As I said before, it bored and even sickened me to hear my father go on like this; unfortunately, he never "mellowed" with old age, but just got worse. Now that he's dead, I really don't want to go any further in talking about it. The only on my part to say is that I grew up wanting to be different from him and not have all that hate.

Can you even begin to imagine the shock that hit him when my father finally realized how different I was! I went on to college, studied history (mostly Western European!), wanted to come and live in Europe, picking up a European language or two. To make it brief, I realized all of my dreams, getting married as well here. So I think having grown up the way I did, with the environment I grew up in, may POSSIBLY help explain why Brits are so critical of the rest of Europe. Not only the generation that actually fought the war, but the generations after, seeing how many Europeans are so critical now of Britain and the USA (not to mention Israel!) have caused a lot of resentment and anger to surface. Again, I'm not saying it's right, only trying to help explain with a more personal side to the story.

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