We appreciate the peace brought by US. We are just mad about its political and military expansion after WWII.
I truly believe
the Greatest Generation were, indeed, the greatest. They grew during the Depression, they fought WWII and when the war was over they returned home and built and rebuilt their countries and the world where later generations would grow up. They gave all they had and demanded little in return.
Some years ago I was talking with one of them, a WWII veteran, and he said something which made me think, he said WWII was the last war where the Americans were the good guys. I didn't take it to mean that is what he thought necessarily but that it was the most common perception now in the world. That while everybody agreed America's intervention in WWII was a good thing, all the wars that followed were perceived as wrong by most of the world. Probably he had Vietnam in mind mostly but also other interventions in other places, especially in South America.
The anniversary of D-Day is coming up and I am grateful to all the allies who fought, many of which lost their lives. They truly were the Greatest Generation.
But many Americans are very mistaken in thinking America won the war. The war was won jointly by the Allies and America's industrial output was very important but America did not come even close to paying the price paid in lives and suffering by the Soviets, Chinese, British, etc.
Also, WWII had already started in Asia when Germany invaded Poland and started the war in Europe. We tend to have a very self-centered view of history.
Now we are forgetting that it was nationalism and isolationism that caused WWII and many nations are going down that path again. The people are followers by nature and will follow any leader but it is the responsibility of the leaders to exercise good judgment and they are failing us.
Newer generations are being told by their leaders that because their grandfathers fought in WWII they have the right to privilege with respect to the rest of the world and that is just crazy. That was a long time agoand now things are different.