Ha! Nick, I agree with the majority here.
I'd admit that a military upbringing would instil greater discipline in a person, but besides discipline, what else does it do?
I could imagine disadvantages too, like single mindedness, narrow tunnel vision thinking, and an inflexibility in dealing with individuals that are different than you - including those with a different up-bringing and different opinions. Throughout history, it's the military leaders and those brought up in the military that have caused the majority of the wars and human suffering as well as bringing imperialist thinking to the masses (Perhaps you have a slight bout of this). If that's what better upbringing does for you, you can keep it.
Perhaps it wont though, it depends entirely on how that person emotionally and intellectually evolves and grows through that person experiences in life. I've managed to drag myself through life pretty decently I'd say, if you compare what I had to be brought up. Father did a disappearing act when I was 10, and still nowhere to be seen. Brought up by my mother as the eldest of 3 sons, I think we're all decent people. I have a 30 hour a week job, while doing my final year of my engineering degree. I'm in the Royal Navy reserves and will be an engineer in the Royal navy once I've got my degree and should have a pretty sound life for the next 5 to 10 years anyway. My experience and seeing my mother drag us up have influenced me a lot. I've a deep respect for education - something a lot of people in the developed world now takes for granted. I've a huge respect for woman. Tolerant of different peoples opinions. I think I'm a hardworking an organised person and I'm extremely careful at picking my friends. But, I have no time for lazy people, fools, hardliners, arrogant people and timewasters. I wouldn't change it for the world either or my friends and girlfriend. I think this is all to do with my upbringing, and I'd class it as more worthy of any bland, more regimented, military upbringing. But that's my opinion.
Using your thinking, taking a person outside the military sorta 'up-bringing' and putting them into a lifestyle were they're not regimented, regulated, with forced upon disciplined would perhaps send them in complete disorganisation and find it difficult for them to fit into civilian life and get a full time job out with the state payroll.
Perhaps what you have realised is the flexibility that the German people have in accepting others, or, in other words, how tolerant the European people are to opinions, races, religions and beliefs. Something America doesn't need to do on the same scale as the American people are more like each other than the Europeans are to each other. Simply, I think Europeans are more open minded and tolerant - something they need to be for the EU to work.