Lantos says Netherlands owes us a favour

While I dislike posts that merely link to other posts, I think that this is a case where the original sums up my thoughts nicely. The issue is recent remarks by Rep. Lantos to Dutch politicians.
During a discussion of Dutch involvement in the Afghan effort, Lantos pulled this well-worn sock out of his bag:

“You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany,” Lantos said, according to the Dutch lawmakers.

Ah, yes, the "you owe us" card that is so often played with such arrogance by American politicians and pundits. Yes, over sixty years ago the U.S. liberated Europe from Nazi Germany. They pretty much had to, in order to reach Germany itself, of course. Despite the fact most Americans and Europeans alive today weren't even born when this took place, this is still trotted out as if it took place just yesterday. It was used to get Europe and the U.N. into the Korean War. The card was played in the Gulf War. And the invasion of Iraq was another chance to guilt-trip Europe into participation, or at least silence. And, apparently, Europe still owes us.

Oddly, however, we don't "owe" the Soviet Union for killing 85% of Hitler's soldiers on the Eastern Front. Suckers.

The mere fact that we have to play this card with Europe is proof that NATO is tiring of dancing to Bush's tune in Afghanistan.

"The comments killed the debate," said Harry van Bommel, a member of the Socialist Party. "It was insulting and counterproductive."

As a Holocaust survivor, Lantos also felt free to guilt-trip Dutch politicians over occupied Netherlands' failure to stop Hitler's campaign against the Jews, as if they really could have stopped it. Of course, Hitler's attentions also fell on communists, homosexuals, and Gypsies, among others. But we really only are reminded of the extermination of the Jews, continuously and at great length. And somehow it's our fault, though it's never really made clear how.

Still, it makes one wonder how Israel, the Eternal Victim State, could be the only nation in the entire world to back the genocidal regimes in Uganda (remember Idi Amin?) and Guatemala.
Yeah, I'm damn tired of Israel playing the "you owe us" card with us over something somebody else did to them before I was born or my parents were even adults. Maybe the $12 million each day that we shovel into Israel as a gift kind of covers my ass for my grandparents' failure to die for some jackass on the other side of the planet's bad idea. Obviously Lantos would disagree.