I get what you say, e.g. the NSA is not a practical problem as long as there isn't a McCarthy and economic depression scenario. Then you would literally risk a

I get what you say, e.g. the NSA is not a practical problem as long as there isn't a McCarthy and economic depression scenario. Then you would literally risk a 1984 scenario. Point is, your distinction re "real" war definition with countries is not working. (The Taliban, for instance, is more or less a real guerrilla army with state backing. Almost all larger terror groups get unofficial state support from somewhere.) Countries can be seen (and typically behave) as unusually big clans that do clan warfare. That the states wrote specific legal protections for themselves, compared to smaller clans, doesn't make them fundamentally different.