Hey Matt,
It could just as easily be said, in fact has been said, that the wars of the 20th century were the root of not only astounding technological advancement, but cultural clarification. The post WWII period was the hay-day of US exceptionalism, and Germany and Japan didn’t do so poorly either. England didn’t fare as well. But it could be argued that the war, thanks to Churchill, was merely a break from a progressive decline.
Contemporary liberal guilt over winning those wars is another matter.
Secondly, as per your second point; governments do not have money. Taxpayers have money and governments control it, but the notion that ‘governments have money’ is the reason we are in this mess to begin with. The sooner we disavow ourselves of that idiocy, the sooner we can right the ship.
Finally, to examine clear eyed the ongoing struggle between the entitlement left and the classic liberal right, a conflagration that encompasses the entire world but is daily fought in the American democratic battlefield, one is hard pressed to see a positive outcome that could come from anything other than a re-clarifying war.
But I, along with you, will try to think positive thoughts.
