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May 28, 2006
An interesting account by David Gordon of the state of emergence in the work of the economic historian Robert Higg ---both his Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Societyand Resurgence of the Warfare State: The Crisis Since 9/11. The former argues that the state grows during wartime and other "emergencies"; and when peace or normality returns, government does not shrink to its former size. I
In the latter Higg argues that during the Iraq War the Bush Administration has continued to use military emergency to increase the power of the government .The ostensible reasons for the war cannot be taken seriously. Who can really believe that Iraq, a nation long subjected to a devastating blockade and bombing, posed a danger to America? In the months that preceded the invasion, much was made of Saddam Hussein's supposed plans to obtain nuclear weapons. Of course, we now know that the intelligence reports that alleged such plans were false. But even if they had been true, an Iraq with nuclear arms was a minor matter.
Gordon says that:
Higgs thinks that not only the Iraq war, but also the entire "war on terrorism" is a made-up affair, designed to frighten the American public into support for a foreign policy of militant aggression. He uses a simple but telling argument to show that the campaign against terror is bogus. If we really were in danger, isn't the government doing far too little to protect us? "If semi-organized gangs of suicidal maniacs numbering in the thousands are out to kill us all, the government ought not to be fiddling with kindergarten subsidies and the preservation of the slightly spotted screech owl. It ought to get serious."
That right isn't it?
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I agree. I have noticed in Australian media reporting that a disturbance of any kind, is seen as so frightening, it requires military intervention. There was an ABC politics report that some locals wanted the military to come in and calm things down - like how the UN operates. The NT police refuted it, and rightly so, it is a civil matter.
In the US driving a car out of your garage and onto the roads is a greater assumption of risk and bodily harm than terrorism, even in hotspots like DC and NY. I recall seeing a figure in 2002, that people were more likely to die of under-cooked meat than terrorism in the US. It is certainly true in Australia.