One needs to remember that Bomber Command started its operations when the German military machine had subjugated Western Europe and was threatening to eliminate the USSR. If that happened then nothing would have stood in the way of the German invasion of Britain. There wasn't time to fuck around worrying about the poor German civilian. Britain was a hair away from being defeated & occupied! There wasn't time to develop laser-guided munitions and thermal imaging equipment required to enable a bombardier to pick out industrial targets built in the middle of suburbia.

Harris & his Bomber Command took the technology and manpower they had available and used it to the best of their ability to help defeat the Nazis. Civilians died. That is unfortunate. What would you have Britain do? Surrender and allow Hitler to rule the Western Hemisphere to avoid inadvertently killing a single German Housewife with your crude and ungainly weapon?

• Bombing like Dresden may be reasonably debated as strategically necessary to the saving of lives in the long run;
• Justification on the grounds of collective guilt is unreasonable;
• Justification of unlimited force in all circumstances is unreasonable.

What, precisely, do you think critics of government are doing if not reshaping government?

Is your logic:

• We get the kind of government we deserve.
• The Germans got the Nazi government.
• ... therefore all Germans deserved to die in a Dresden-style holocaust?

The German populace was not duped.  They listened to Hitler say this among other things:

 "It is thus necessary that the individual should come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole ... that above all the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual. .... This state of mind, which subordinates the interests of the ego to the conservation of the community, is really the first premise for every truly human culture .... we understand only the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow man." [Adolph Hitler, 1933]

From an old essay of mine:

Plato is quoted as saying, "Good people need no laws to act responsibly, and bad people find a way around the laws." Benjamin Franklin addressed the issue by saying, “As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Theodore Roosevelt said, “No prosperity and no glory can save a nation that is rotten at heart,” and Judge Learned Hand offered: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”

James Madison cautioned, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other", and Thomas Jefferson warned, "Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection."

This theme was most clearly enunciated by Alexis de Tocqueville, a French historian, who in the 19th century concluded that, "America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good, it shall cease to be great." De Tocqueville wrote at length about Americans and liberty, and was impressed with our predilection for keeping government at bay while happily pursuing our personal interests. He concluded that this made for a harmonious and industrious society where citizens were afforded the opportunity to succeed to the extent ambition inspired them.

The consensus is that for a nation to be a free and virtuous, the citizenry must manifest those qualities first. The whole is equal to the sum of its parts. The notion that we can be better collectively than as individuals is patently false. Morality begins with the individual and is reflected in how they are governed.

Nathan wrote

What, precisely, do you think critics of government are doing if not reshaping government?

Just talking.

Is your logic:

• We get the kind of government we deserve.
• The Germans got the Nazi government.
• ... therefore all Germans deserved to die in a Dresden-style holocaust?

No and that is not logical.

The US government is a representative democracy responsive to the consent of the governed, when citizens are silent consent is implied. Government, or more accurately those who speak for government as it exists today, believe they are doing the will of the American people.   They say they believe in the constitution and laud social security as the highest achievement of that ideal. They profess a belief in the great experiment launched by our founding fathers and hold the IRS sacrosanct.  There is a cognitive disconnect, but it originates with citizens themselves. 

If a nation's citizenry can not sort it out in their own minds and explain it to those they elect, there is no hope for this or any other nation.  The failure of citizens to accomplish this, for whatever reason, e.g. indifference, stupidity, laziness, whatever, results in authoritarian government.  We make the bed we lie in, or allow it to be made for us.

The German populace was not duped.  They listened to Hitler say this among other things:

 

 "It is thus necessary that the individual should come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; ... [Snip balance of collectivist Hitler quote.]" [Adolph Hitler, 1933]

and a large majority voted for him. 
 

James Madison cautioned, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other", and Thomas Jefferson warned, "Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection."

This theme was most clearly enunciated by Alexis de Tocqueville, a French historian, who in the 19th century concluded that, "America is great because America is good. When America ceases to be good, it shall cease to be great."

The consensus is that for a nation to be a free and virtuous, the citizenry must manifest those qualities first.The whole is equal to the sum of its parts. The notion that we can be better collectively than as individuals is patently false. Morality begins with the individual and is reflected in how they are governed.

Democracy is by definition collective.

And collections are by definition composed of individuals.

...the collectivist simply attaches greater value to the whole than to the individual.