Well said Wretchard. The flip side of Secular Millenarism is secular armageddonism.

Remember the Morgenthau Plan to virtually eliminate the population of Germany?

REmember Jake Smith saying to kill all Filipino males over the age of 10?

I can remember folks advocating a global nuclear holocaust because that was the only way the communists could ever be stopped.

I am not too worried about the sort of polemics we see from the regulars on this thread. Just a little venting of frustrations is all.

I am MUCH more concerned about those who insist the war is a disaster, that the economy is totally broken, that socialism now reigns supreme, and on and on and on.
Whereas our guys are wishing for a magic bullet, those others seek to purge this world of all sin by declaring utter defeat.

Gordon R. Dickson, another of my favorites,
explored this in his science fiction. No matter how bleak things might look at any given moment, there would always be those whose faith was unshakeable, those whose minds could not accept the notion of inevitability, and those incapable of submission. He called these, in order, Friendlies, Exotics, and the Dorsai. Belmont Club has its share of all, especially the latter.