Gil, here's one lefty's take on the dissolving phantasmagoria of blood and misery of nation-making. Canada's special forces are in combat supporting the Kurds ostensibly fighting Assad but really carving out a nation (to be betrayed again) while fighting our NATO ally Turkey, and selling arms and armoured cars to regional despots. How to find the peace of God that defies all understanding?
Thousands of Cubans were executed for opposing the revolution, actively or peacefully expressing their opinions. If murder is killing wickedly or with malice aforethought, the musketry and misery of the Civil War took the lives of an estimated 615,000-830,000 Americans. UK- and US-cooking of "intelligence" for Iraq gave the world IS and tens of millions displaced, dead, lives ruined.
I don't see all of this as left- or right-oriented nor believe any reasonable person takes comfort from it. We're all complicit in the murdering and misery of rampant nationalism, of our countries proclaiming superiority to others with a right to invade any country inimical to our national interests and change their institutions to ours. I believe in "just" wars.
