Seems like nothing has really changed.
Growing up in Denmark in the 1960's and 1970's, I remember the eternal talk of how "The Americans and the Soviets might kill us all at a moment's notice" and the "warning" (whether true or not) that if the sirens went off and kept going, we could expect to have about "half an hour to live" because it meant the Americans and the Russians were sending nuclear missiles at each other, and they had the firepower to kill the world 50 times over... while we were just sitting in the middle (Denmark) minding our own business...
exactly, meaning a great deal of time and money has been utterly wasted 😂