To the editor:

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. The American public’s lack of history in this whole anti-Germany and France debacle. The United States is only 226 years old. In less than half of that time, Germany and France have been decimated and occupied through wars.

These experiences have made these two countries wiser and more responsible in their actions. Can this be said for the United States?

While all of this “patriotism?” is going on, most of the American public fails to realize that Chrysler is now Daimler-Chrysler, based in Germany. Mercedes-Benz builds SUVs in Alabama. BMW builds sports cars in South Carolina. Nissan operates a plant in Tennessee, and is partly owned by Renault of France. America is being picked on due to its lack of cultural and historical perspective.

How is it that my father can be apologized to for the acts of one Adolf Hitler by 90-year-old German citizens at a Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society Meeting at Berlin, in the summer of 2000, and no one in this country is really ready to apologize for the atrocities committed against indigenous peoples and other minority groups in the colonial settlement and expansion of this country since 1535?

These anti-German feelings bring an important point to mind. Much of Kansas is of German descent. Imagine speaking German during World War I and World War II. These people were ostracized by second and third generation “Americans”?

In conclusion, exercising restraint and judgment should not be viewed as “un-American.” Exercising these choices would have led to the lives of both soldiers and civilians being spared. I wish someone would have listened.

Mike Ford, Lawrence