We haven’t declared war on anyone in almost eight decades, but we’ve been in almost continual fights, and lost thousands of troops. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a voting issue for Congress. As Stephen Green says, the main two terrible things we did after 911, were the authorization of military force, and the Patriot Act. And it seems that Westphalia is dead.
Yes, it’s impossible to predict the effects of drops in the price of previously-rare commodities. Gold is a very useful industrial metal, and this would expand its usage.
I don’t know how you can talk about this topic without discussing The Outlaw Josie Wales. Also, the term goes all they back to England, resulting from the red collars that Presbyterians wore.