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2.  Agreed again ... so once we realize that "America" and "France" and "The Third Reich" are simply communities of people ... villages on a larger scale, as it were...
2a.  Now we are likely to conclude that SOME wars are morally right.  They're extensions of the self-defense principle -- simply with larger numbers attached.
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3.  Agreed 101% that once we decide (2) we had better be BLINKIN' CAREFUL which wars we "righteously" fight.  Just like you, in the street, need to be blinkin' careful who you punch!  :- )
3a.  You mention your "gut."  Agreed 101% that --- > there is no substitute for a man's conscience.  None.  A man obeying his conscience is a good man.  A man violating his conscience is acting as a bad man.
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There have indeed been many American Presidents -- perhaps most of them, perhaps all of them -- who pulled the trigger on wars (with the consent of Congress) after SINCERE PRAYER.  Religious or not, I approve of this ultimate effort to follow their consciences.  And in America, war occurs (normally) only after a LOT of men and women have followed their consciences in agreement to oppose a Hitler, or Saddam, or whoever.
Ironically, atheists worry that when Barack Obama prays before ordering a military action, that it's going to lead him into a self-righteous cruelty.  Sometimes it's impossible for a Blue man to "get" a Green man.  If I were anti-Bible ... and I used to be ... I would still want the man in the Oval Office worrying about answering to God.  I wouldn't want him thinking that he was the ultimate authority in the galaxy, with no one to answer to!
There's an asterisk.  Obama no doubt orders certain drone strikes, CIA ops, etc., in a manner not consistent with the above.  That's another case; we're talking about whether war CAN be the right thing to do.
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As C.S. Lewis put it, If the U.S. and Spain both honestly thought they had to fight each other, and two Soldiers shot each other in good conscience, Lewis said, they'd stand up outside their bodies and share a laugh with each other.
Tragedies occur, but God holds men responsible for no more than obeying their consciences the best they can.  It's a tough world we've created.