Thanks for this, I appreciate hearing your perspective and basically agree. An important point you raise is the significance of a deep history intermingled wit

Thanks for this, I appreciate hearing your perspective and basically agree. An important point you raise is the significance of a deep history intermingled with that of a country's neighbours. Especially I think when it involves levels of conflict that greatly change society. Maybe it's easier to find ways to get along when you've a deep shared cultural memory of what happened when you didn't. Whereas the US has had this in a sense internally, its wars have generally been in "far away places". Other than isolated examples, this leads the populace to mostly "miss out" on what the impacts of full-scale war feels like. I wonder if the microcosm of the armed forces might bear the brunt of this aspect in some isolation - and perhaps, sadly this may show in the high rate of US veteran social issues, suicides etc.