All great fires started with a single spark.

Confirmed foolishness by most advanced thinkers:

History can be extremely cruel – especially if you know it. No wonder most Americans choose not to study too diligently.

I have Europe on my mind today, where even buildings can be dangerous. The building in question is Palace of Versailles.

Here is the backdrop: Versailles was the unofficial capital city of the kingdom of France from May 1682 (King Louis XIV moves the court and government permanently to Versailles) until September 1715 (death of Louis XIV and regency, with the regent Philippe d'Orléans returning to Paris). Now, we fast forward to 1918 and the defeat of Germany at the end of WW1. France looks to humiliate the defeated Germans and reclaims Alsace-Lorraine (two provinces which were largely German before and after the wars, remaining largely German populated to this day. Maybe this wouldn’t be too terrible if German wealthiest coal mines and steel industry weren’t exactly next door in the provinces of Ruhr and Saar (Saarbrucken). Nordrhein and Hessen.

Not to be outdone, after the initial successes of the German War machine June 1940 Hitler accepted the surrender of the French government at a ceremony in Compiegne, France. He melodramatically insisted on receiving France's surrender in the same railroad car in which Germany had signed the 1918 armistice that had ended World War One.

After Hitler accepted France's surrender, he stepped backwards slightly, as if in shock. But this is not what the audiences in the Allied countries saw who watched the movie-reel of the ceremony. Instead they saw Hitler dance a bizarre little jig after signing the documents, as if he were childishly celebrating his victory. The scene was played over and over again in movie theaters. Of course, Hitler had not done a little dance. Allied propagandists had simply looped the footage of Hitler's step backwards, so that it appeared as if he were dancing. The film clip served its desired purpose, which was to ridicule the Nazi leader.

Children could call this “tit for tat”.

Today, while here in America we celebrate Thanksgiving (a concept most strange and alien to most Europeans), they are again bickering. I hope to God we don’t have to send our troops to bail them out any time soon (again).

Not too far back, we had renamed French fries into Freedom Fries, since the French were acting up and were not willing to help us with our efforts to bring peace and democracy to Iraq. A few years before that, we had imposed heavy taxes on French diary products in an effort to protect our milk industry. Imagine if the Vermont dairy were to impose taxes on Wisconsin Cheese or California milk or Florida milk. We have four large dairy producers here in the United States.

How do we connect WW1, WW2, Palace at Versailles, Freedom Fries and Thanksgiving.

Very easily. Today’s BBC informs us that Poland (in its full EU member capacity) refuses to lift a veto on Negotiations with Russia scheduled to take place in Finland over the few coming weeks.

Poland was particularly devastated by the Russians after WW2, while it was under the iron boot of Communism. Additionally, Russia has imposed restrictions on imports of Polish beef, and in return Poland has placed a veto on strategic talks between EU and Russia.

Is it only me, or does this not look like the same behavior that has resulted in many bloody years among European countries.

So much more is our Thanksgiving a greater holiday, as it knows no boundaries between religions, races, gender, creed or anything else. As Americans, we are all thankful on this day in our own different way. Yes it started with the Mayflower’s arrival at Plymouth Rock and the local Indians, but today it a nationwide phenomenon of cosmic proportions. Sometimes we can find and recognize our virtues only when we see how much any similar virtues are lacking elsewhere.

Iliya Pavlovich