Laurence: A very good question. The answer is implicit in Randolph Bourne’s classic observation that “war is the health of the state.” A “healthy” condition is dependent upon regular exercise. What the U.S. is doing in Iraq would be perfectly understandable to Britain’s WWII war criminal, RAF commander Arthur “Bomber” Harris, who directed bombing attacks against German cities that had no military significance whatever (e.g., Dresden, Wurzburg). Harry Truman would also grasp the significance of continuing to bomb innocent men, women and children; his having done so at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The day may come – although I doubt it – when most people realize that political systems are no more – and no less – than institutions that enjoy a legal monopoly on the use of violence against whomever those in control of the machinery of death and destruction choose to attack. Why is the U.S. continuing to bomb Iraq? Because it’s there, and – in the logic of politics – someone has to be the victim of the state’s reason for existing!
12:53 pm on August 24, 2014
