Good Hank thread, it summarizes why I disliked All Quiet on the Western Front even as a kid.
“Why do we fight? Was is, like, really bad ok?”
You fight because there are bloodthirsty, powerful men on the other side who wish to bring great ruin upon your nation. You face the horrors of war so your people don’t face the horrors of forced child prostitution as the result of the brutal “peace” of the Treaty of Versailles and corresponding Weimar period. Even as a kid this was obvious from the most basic historical facts that even the Hitler (History) Channel would admit to.
@TurboNormie one of the undermentioned aspects of the current war in Ukraine is that it's reminiscent (on a large enough scale, the Donbass has been one long disaster since 2014) of the limited warfare that the ancien régime was known for (pre-Napoleon and trying to ignore the 30 years war.)
The Russians, it seems, have shown more restraint than the US and UK did in the Middle East, likely for simple reasons of proximity and ethnic kinship.
If warfare is inevitable better it is managed somewhat locally, rather than huge power-blocks going toe to toe for half a decade.
one of the reasons I consider the EU a bad idea, despite being European - I'd rather we remained fractious and flexible enough to mediate between east and west. The alternative appears to be some sort of tri-block forever war à la 1984
