Edited

Now the American government as it is currently operating is quite socialist.

"""The whole of the federal government is liberal, the federal tax system is liberal, the nanny state and corporate welfare are liberal, and because of the liberal federal tax system war is a liberaly funded never ending enterprise as are the amoral unethical values of this country are liberal!"""



"""The whole of the federal government is liberal"""-2Sirius
The problem here is the word liberal is not precisely defined.


As soon as you forcibly tax people to create government programs you have socialism.

Thus all governments are socialist.(Socialism is not communism as used here) All taxing is socialist. All government entities,armies,schools,public projects,health care,etc. are socialist.

The Imaginary Liberatarian government does not tax the people thus it does not provide services except the enforcement of contracts.



Economically a (socialist) government can operate as a communist system where the government controls all production or a capitalist system where the government allows for free enterprise market capitalism with varying degrees of oversight.

Taxing people may be a socialist concept but who gets taxed the most and who gets the benefits of the tax determines whether it is liberal(altruistic) or conservative(predatory).
Corporate welfare is not liberal. Taking from the poor to give to the rich is not a liberal idea.That is a conservative (predatory) or feudal idea like slavery.
Taking from the rich and giving to the poor is the liberal (altruistic) view. Of course the rich view taking from them as predatory and will complain its not fair.

The Paradox
Taxing the people to create the armed forces is socialism, no different than taxing the people to create public works projects or medical care except for the usually negative benefit in peace time.
The USE of the army in imperialist wars of aggression,particularly the Iraq war is not the result of liberals but of the Neocons influence on the military industrial complex and the government, to create an opportunity for corporate welfare.

The Iraq war is a conservative (predatory) use of a socialist institution. Imperialist wars of aggression can never be liberal as their goal is only to benefit the rich.

The Neocons, who seem to be in control now are "students" of the Chicago School of Economics (Milton Friedman) which was an anti communist, 100 percent pro capitalist philosophy. The Neocons are feudalist Royalists capitalists so they do like their corporate welfare warfare.