Though I am a longtime agnostic, I have great respect for Christians who take their belief system seriously in their social policies. I have made it a point to accuse those self-proclaimed Christians who support war as being non-Christian, it being my understanding that Jesus was a pacifist, not a Marine Corps colonel.
I have noticed the emergence of a mantra into every discussion of the impropriety of the state's expansion of power and violence: "we're at war!" Of course, strictly speaking, "we" (the United States) are not at war, as I understand Congress has never made an official declaration of war against Iraq, as the Constitution requires. But reasoning aside - as seems to be the practice these days - the recitation of the new mantra goes like this: to the charge that Americans have been torturing people in Iraq, the answer is "we're at war!" Marines have been murdering innocent civilians in Iraq? "We're at war!" People are still being held at Guantanamo in very inhumane conditions, and without benefit of a trial? "We're at war!" The government has engaged in surveillance of our telephone conversations? "We're at war!" The government has been lowering the threshold of permissible police activity? "We're at war!" People are being shipped to eastern European states for more sophisticated forms of torture? "We're at war!" The government is tracking the banking transactions of Americans? "We're at war!"
On and on goes the mantra, each member of the statist priesthood being careful to recite it in the appropriate meter and strength of conviction. I am surprised that the Bush administration's propagandist-in-chief, Tony Snow, bothers to answer press conference questions with any words beyond those of the mantra.
Now you know what Randolph Bourne meant in his observation that "war is the health of the state." The Bush administration is taking the proposition one step further: "war is the god of the state," and one sees converts from other religions flocking to be baptized in the new faith.
