Iran, War, and the Health of the State

by Gerard Emershaw

Randolph Bourne famously said: “War is the health of the state.” This has proven to be a truism. War is sometimes necessary. The Revolutionary War was necessary to free the American Colonies from the oppressive yoke of British rule. However, most wars can and should be avoided. War against external enemies inevitably leads to a war against the American people. War leads to the erosion of civil liberties. From the Alien and Sedition Acts from Adams’ Quasi War to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus to Wilson’s Sedition Act of 1918 to Roosevelt’s internment camps to the Patriot Act to the NSA surveillance program, war against an external enemy always involves a parallel war against the Constitution. War leads to bigger government, which leads higher spending and borrowing, which leads to a greater national deficit.

That war leads to greater deficits and less freedom is so well known by now that anyone who is hawkish on war must essentially be in favor of sacrificing economic health and freedom on the altar of militarism. Based on recent events in the Senate, it seems that there are plenty of bellicose neoconservatives and neo-progressives more than willing to make this sacrifice. A cadre of over two dozen Senators—evenly split among Democrats and Republicans—are pushing a bill called the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act. The bill threatens new sanctions against Iran at a time when the Obama administration is attempting to diffuse tensions with that nation through diplomacy. Such sanctions never work. They punish the people while having little or no effect on a nation’s leadership. They are acts of war which court blowback and harden hearts and minds around the globe against the United States.

It is unclear why so many misguided members of the Senate are so intent on a war with Iran, but it is clear that they have been for some time. These neoconservative RINOs and Wilsonian progressives do not care that keeping the nation on a war footing is expensive and will lead to an increased deficit and, perhaps ultimately, to even higher taxes. They do not care that more hostility toward the Islamic world can lead to blowback and yet more terrorism. They do not care that an Orwellian continuous war with nations in the Middle East will only grow the NSA and the rest of the Big Brother Surveillance State. They do not care that further destabilizing the Middle East in general and Iran in particular can have a disastrous impact on the global petroleum market.

A broken clock is right twice a day, and President Obama is right about attempting diplomacy with Iran. These senators are wrong. Dead wrong. President George W. Bush infamously said regarding the fight against terrorism: “You are either with us or against us.” Well, perhaps the same thing applies here. You are either with economic and social freedom or you are against it. If you are in favor of ginning up a war against Iran, then you are most certainly against freedom. The following sponsors of this wrongheaded bill are against freedom: Menendez, Kirk, Schumer, Graham, Cardin, McCain, Casey, Rubio, Coons, Cornyn, Blumenthal, Ayotte, Begich, Corker, Pryor, Collins, Landrieu, Moran, Gillibrand, Roberts, Warner, Johanns, Hagan, Cruz, Donnelly, and Blunt.