As for why the taxes are much higher than the airfare and why you can't book from the US, you would have to pose those question to the British government. Go to RyanAir.com and look up any of the fares they have that are free (they make up for it in fees.) A zero Euro fare will end up costing you anywhere from 25 to 50 Euros depending on where you are going.
Here's the deal - right now I am looking at Orbitz.com from Tampa to Frankfurt Germany (I was looking that up, and thought of your post)
Us Airways and Northwest have a base fare of $660, after taxes it's $778. On Air Canada base $559, after taxes $971. And on Lufthansa base fare is $679, after taxes (get ready for this) $1,043.
On your second question, it doesn't matter if it's the same milage and the like. How do you know that the flight from Europe is not more booked, hence the cheaper seats are sold out?
There's a lot that you are bashing the airlines for that in reality it's that you are not understanding how this all works. When flying internationally there is a lot more regulation in place by the governments of the different countries involved.
Let me put it to you this way -right now in the US gas is around $3 to $3.50 per gallon. In Germany it's more like $8 to $9 per gallon. Why? Because in Europe they tax the hell out of the people. Same is happening here.
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