There are many many ways of looking at history but only one way to look at the premature death of any young soldier and all casualties of war: shame on us humanity for not doing all we can to protect their lives better. We must and can do better than that.

We must listen to those who have seen the jaws of war first-hand. Like President Dwight Eisenhower in his Farewell Address to the nation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWiIYW_fBfY . Or Wilfred Owen's as he wrote in his poem

"My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori." **

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est

Therefore those that survived WOII, like Adenauer, De Gaulle, De Gasperi, Schuman, many others, set up the European project for peace and prosperity on our continent. The idiot Neocons that followed them have squandered our legacy. It's high time to claim it back before there is nothing left.

ps, I am very grateful to Mikhail Gorbachev for ending the cold war. I hated living in a constant state of fear (in NL). I despise our Western governments for not helping Russia rebuild decently after the fall in 1989. The help we ourselves received after WOII, (Marshall Plan) and East Germany also received. We did the exact opposite and unleashed our rawest form of US-backed capitalism on the poor Russian population. We have earned their disgust and distrust. We all must do better for the whole of Europe. I believe we can.