Interesting, but to tie this into the 20th Century theme, when do wars ever get fought for the reasons later ascribed to them?
Canadian farmers in 1939 didn't volunteer to end the Holocaust, but it's an easy peg to hang Canada's Second World War involvement on after the fact. It's a great justification for the cost and motivation.
Liberty, equality, fraternity - great notions, and our American cousins are expressing all that as we speak. They have a right to feel Cowpens and Yorktown were about that; the average rifleman at the Scheldt knew less about Auschwitz or the Jews than the average Minuteman knew about democracy.