But, despite the best efforts of our public schools, Americans actually understand their history. We just don't wallow in it. Because one of the great things about America is that it was designed to be a life raft to escape the sinking ship of history. If Arabs and their American apologists want to bitch and moan about the crusades, if they can't get over the fact that a few hundred years ago their societies imploded like a bad soufflé in a clay oven, that's their problem. We're not mad at the Japanese for bombing Pearl Harbor anymore, but we're supposed to keep apologizing for a defensive war launched by popes nearly a millennium before the Boston Tea Party? Get over yourselves, you're not that important.