@Mr. Deez
First I must thank you for your comprehensive response. It indicates you have put much thought into this subject. I may repeat myself below but the context of my remarks are within the President's comments of ****-hole countries as if he is enlightened and qualified to speak and pass judgment on the matter without any historical context as to why they are in the shape they are in.
I understand that Europe is made up of different cultures but in my opinion it's not that simple to break it apart and pretend there is no common thread between the major countries (and by Europe I really mean England, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy; Poland is kind of in the middle for me in this context). There are ****-hole countries and without some acknowledgement of EUROPEAN imperialism then it seems disingenuous to me to attack them when they have a history of being exploited by the supposed superior culture of the West. That is the context of my comment. It's like people who want black people to get over it. I don't think anyone has a real understanding of the psychological impact upon black people that their history in America has had on them. It's an outrage to me to hear some of my white redneck friends mock them when those same type of personalities oppressed them long ago. I do see a connection. Not as guilt for what their fathers did but instead in the failure to evolve. That is what I am getting at when I say I'm not impressed with Europe. I won't apologize for it. I won't make relative arguments either (bringing up other atrocities by other cultures). Isn't moral relativism a Leftist construct?
As an apology for the past has been presented in your comment as some sort of cleansing I'm wondering how you felt about Obama's "apology tour" as it was dubbed by some on the right. Was that also something peddled by Leftists? Are we supposed to apologize or not? Germany was basically forced to look into itself because it was broken into pieces after the war. They were left in complete shambles and I'm not so impressed with their subsequent "falling all over themselves" because they were forced to do it.
I also believe that Gorbachev spent much time discussing the past of the Soviet Union and their has been much de-Stalinism by Russia which if not an outright apology is still a clear admission of the failures of the past. It's just an example.
As for trans-generational guilt for atrocities, do you take a legalistic or practical approach? Gorbachev admitted Russian guilt over the Katyan Massacre (22,000 Poles murdered by the Soviets on Stalin's orders in the aforementioned Poland) believe the Russians have attempted to hide behind a law that considers the matter to be a criminal act by the individuals and not a state crime against humanity thus the statute of limitations has expired according to them. Are we to just move on?
As I said above, in the end, my comment is about ****-holes versus enlightened, progressive societies. I believe the past has damned many nations to ****-hole status. I suppose we can tell them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps but it's not that simple to me.
