The fact that people feel entitled to use the expression "we" to times before we were born, and, for Americans, in many cases to times before their ancestors even came to America - it is really pretty strange.

When it is applied about ideas and philiosphies, it makes some kind of metaphorical sense - "we" meaning people who think more or less in the same way I do.

But when it is applied to nations, it makes no sense whatsoever that I can see. That applies just as much when it comes to asking for a share of the praise for the good things that were done, or offering to carry a share of the blame for the bad things.

There were a lot of both those kinds of things in all our histories. We can learn lessons from what happened, we can draw warnigs and inspiration from it, and we can try to set right some of the uinjustices that have their origins back there. But we don't have the right to pat our selves on the backs, or shoulder the blame, because it wasn't us who did the things that deserve praise or blame back then.