> In actual fact it is looking increasingly like only the memory of those wars was sustaining peace.

I agree, and the further we advance in time, the fewer WW2 survivors we have left to keep that memory alive. I found a few polls saying they're more afraid of Covid than Nuclear war... And fair enough, it's because nuclear war is still theoretical... Nobody was afraid of a pandemic in 2019...

But what you're essentially saying is that we should invest into our security by our memory or our feelings, which is very wrong, because those can be so easily manipulated by a single documentary on TV...

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The rest is amazingly close minded US American thinking.

The reason the US spends so much on defence is because of corruption. Many ways US politicians and lawmakers earn their income is totally illegal in the EU, yet it is they who decide on how tax payer money is spent. In France, where I'm writing to you from, our ex President Sarkozy is still battling charges of arms sales with kickbacks from 2007, these accusations destroyed his party over the years (2% of votes in the last elections).

And yes, France is a very dirty arms dealer, I won't deny that... but we don't sign a lend lease program for Ukraine while paying it with taxpayer money and diverting 40% of the funds to failing banks in the US... (this isn't true, but I'm sure there's a loophole in the bill to pay off someone).