“You’d be surprised what sort of issues are the direct concern of the general staff. They learn to consider those sort of things in the War College. We learned to think that way once we were allowed to send officers the British Admiralty School.”
And that ‘solution’ has not worked throughout history.
That is simply not true. Britain trades with the US. The US trades with Japan. We even have a budding relationship with the Vietnamese, while the Chinese do not. The Japanese are despised by the Chinese to this day. Those who treat the defeated with dignity and respect and help them recover can meet later in friendship and trade.
The only time this hasn't worked is in the Middle East. Of course, they still remember the Crusades.