I was wondering, idly, recently if maybe it was time for us to have another war with someone. I didn’t really care who, although I would prefer it if it were a war we might win, which removes only four or five countries out of the 197. Not a hi-tech war against impecunious Arabs, such as the Iraq war: an involving war, which impinges on us all.

The obvious candidate for an act of unprovoked aggression on our part is France — but it might be over too quickly for the beneficial side effects to take root. So China, maybe, using its bullying of Hong Kong as a pretext. My suspicion is that China’s military competence is gravely overstated.

If we had a war with