True, it is a matter of degree, mostly. Some people can get highly emotional about political / ideological ideas, too. And mob psychology can work to get a bunch of people worked up over just about ANYTHING! But my point is that it is a lot easier to get a lot more people emotionally charged up about core issues such as religion, than politics.
I have no doubt that atrocities can be committed in any war or similar setting. I think it is that mob psychology, with a good dose of adrenalin, that would allow otherwise normal people, to do such things.
My point was just that the hostilities between these middle eastern countries are caused by such core issues as religion and ethnicity, and very long standing animosity between the populations, rather than just between the governments. And that the actual population likely has a lower tolerance and flash point because of the deep seated nature of these ongoing problems. Although some Americans and some Russians are probably emotional about politics, probably not as many would be willing to sacrifice themselves for politics as they would for something like religion (if it is important to them) or some other closely held belief.
Think of people who really hate snakes. They might give a reason - venomous, dangerous, slimy, etc. If their hatred was logical, then they would be fine with them once they found out how few were dangerous, their benefits to ecology, not slimy, etc. But that rarely happens because their fear / hatred is too emotionally charged - they learned from parents and grandparents as children, and it will be difficult or impossible to change their minds. It is not IMPOSSIBLE to change, just very difficult when the subject has a lot of emotional baggage. Emotion trumps logic for most people, unfortunately.
True that it IS just two sides of the same coin. But I see the nuances in degree as having very real possible differences in the outcome between populations of different sets of countries. Sorry if I am not explaining my feelings of these nuances very well - hopefully you can understand what I am trying to say.
