As someone who has done this at the tail end of the Cold War I can say with some authority that this is 100% spot on!

Now, back then it seemed that there was something worth standing up for, there was a lot of actual freedom and sanity around, but still it was not hard to discover that it was a batshit insane scheme once we got up North. Bragging about surviving a nuke at 400 yards? Those NCOs were lunatics...

Then the fuckers did not disband the terrorist organization I had been part of, NATO that is. From then on I've been totally opposed to any of this BS.

These days I'd be happy helping anyone with near anything to get away from this in the West, and that is not a joke at all!