If I promise not to lose my cool again, can I join in?

First my answer to Karl:

Selbstverständlich spreche ich Deutsch, Es ist buchstäblich meine Muttersprache.

A bit more of where I'm coming from:

My German grandfather served in the Wehrmacht and fought in the Western European campaign, and managed to survive the Russian campaign. My mother lost her home during an allied bombardment and had to be evacuated when she was a toddler. My Dutch grandfather was a petrochemical engineer who worked for ESSO on Aruba at the time. Unfortunately his family wasn't quite white enough to allow him to socialise easily with his american colleagues. My dad was once pulled out of the water at the company beach by the police at the instigation of a new american member who, remarking his colour, assumed he couldn't be a member. although to be honest, the white Dutchmen didn't need much help from their US brethren in this respect.

So yes, my attitude towards the USA is ambivalent, I love a lot of what the US have done. What you did after WW II in Europe is even more important than what you did during it. The Marshall plan with its money, know-how and vigour helped us to clean up the bloody mess we Europeans had made during the first half of last century. That time you managed to win the peace as well. However the US isn't automatically the good guy in everything it does. Continuously being called the great Satan is being overrated as an experience, I guess, but refraining from criticising everything that isn't done the american way might be nice as well.

History is important, to study what went right and wrong in the the past and why, but not as a way of keeping score of who owes what to whom. The people in the Balkan are very good at that and see what's happening again over there right now.