That's what confused me too. Is the point because somehow the word liberal is in both "liberal" (as in unrestricted, total?) war and liberal economics / politic

That's what confused me too. Is the point because somehow the word liberal is in both "liberal" (as in unrestricted, total?) war and liberal economics / politics that there's somehow a connection there? That's such a tenuous argument it seems incongruent with the rest of the article which seems decently articulated.