There are a lot of good documentaries about the history of modern wars since WW2, the changing politics, the rise of dictators and adversarial governments we see today, and what the implications are. At least look at enough history to understand the last 30 years. We think this is a special time and big wars are a thing of the past - that for some reason we are special and will always be on top.
Even our kids, in their 30’s, have no concept of how close the world comes to major conflicts, or how many small conflicts happen under the radar. There is an American blind spot that the world revolves around us and things that happen on other continents don’t effect us. Politicians that weaken our democracy make us look much weaker to the world - dipshits in congress are still fighting about the stupidest things because that’s what the billionares funding their elections want.
Make no mistake, if Iran thought we were weak right now they could easily escalate what’s going on in the Middle East - then which countries are on which side? Dirt poor countries don’t count other than that’s where paid solders will come from. Oil rich countries are not all our friends, even though they smile and shake hands with us. Iran is in a religious war with the west and between their oil money and Russian oil money their economy is going to be heavy on military items, that they would love to kill all of us with. Iranian ship building is booming with drone launching boats.
More than that, we’ve been in a war with Russia for over a year - if that escalates it will make our time spent in Afghanistan seem like a walk in the park - rather than a war of roadside bombs and long range pot shots, fighting armor, artillery, modern jets, long range flying things that go boom will change the dynamics greatly. Europe is gearing up manufacturing capacity for a very good reason, and we should be doing the same. Why is a Japanese company trying to buy US Steel, other than to take advantage of a big increase in demand if China cuts us off. Russia has stronger ties with North Korea now than ever and the cash flow into North Korea is ramping up their manufacturing base - the guys we are supporting are being shot with North Korean artillery shells and ammo.
Russia and China have been spending a lot in under developed countries and I have no doubt we will see the effects of that down the road - our kids and grand kids will be shot at with that ammo or those soldiers, or both.
If you explain to a 10 year old who the world leaders are in terms of who is a school yard bully and who tries to have friends, who has to listen to their parents and who doesn’t, who has the most toys and who has none, and who want to boss around the other kids on the playground and who wants to kick groups of kids off the playground, they can predict what today’s politicians seem incapable of.
Use common sense and learn the history of the past 30 years, or 20 years, but learn enough to understand what’s going on in the world.