Marcia, there's a fact that can't be denied, a fact I'll always remind others when the converation gets to this point....we "nasty, imperialistic, war-mongering" Americans freed Europe from totalitarianism....not once, but twice.Yes, and the Chinese invented those fireworks you so enjoy so they must be beyond reproach forever too. ;-)
As for your assertion: surely WWI wasn't about totalitarianism at all and surely Germany lost WWII by attacking Russia and messing around rather than smashing through to Moscow? It's worth calculating how the world would look had Germany defeated Russia and all of Europe while Japan took the rest of Asia and the South Pacific, supplied by Germany.
If it's any consolation, there is no doubt whatsoever that the US saved the Pacific Australasia in WWII.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
