War , What is it Good For?

The expansion of government power and control , that's what!

The ideals of liberty deal with many subjects ; but, one of the most important subjects in human relations is that of the use of violence against others. It is so because when this right is violated it can deprive each of us of the most basic right--life--which when trespassed renders all other rights useless. Stating the obvious , when you are dead neither politics , liberty , nor economics matter.

Without going into too much detail about the law , of course violence when used by one individual against another is justified , even when death results , when the person using the violence is doing so in defense of his own life , or in defense of another's life. It used to be the case , and is still absent government , that people could use violence against others to regain property stolen from them. This is called "private justice". The nature of some humans , being what it is , where people are left without government and everything is based on voluntary exchange , there are those who will take by force-rob. Absent government the "victim" of the robbery was left with two choices : 1. Forget about his stolen property , or 2.Use whatever force he needed to (private justice)in order to get his property back. While it certainly was a right , the use of private justice in society isn't necessarily a good thing. Not only does it put society at risk of constant private feuds , acts of revenge and retaliation , but the victim (whether he is weaker or stronger than the offender) has to put his life or health at risk in exercising private justice while trying to get his property back. That is where men (ok , and women) thought that it would be best for government to step in.

Jefferson wrote about government in the Declaration of Independence , writing "That to secure these rights,...(life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness)..." Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,..." Rather than expose themselves to the risks of exercising private justice , men instituted government to secure to themselves these rights , among other things , in property ; they gave over their rights to private justice by consenting to give that power to the government they instituted for that purpose. The government now exercised public justice , employed courts of law and justice to settle matters in dispute , and established its own institutions to employ force to carry out its judgments when a violator of another's rights would not yield. The government also necessarily was given the power to extend its use of force in our defense against other nations.

In giving government this power to employ force we not only gave away a right in ourselves of using violence in private justice , but we most certainly set ourselves up for the government to be able to use force in others ways , both against ourselves and other nations , that we surely did not intend. This is why the Founders tried to make it very clear that the government was to one of limited powers , that war must be declared , that the branches of government were to be divided , and that the government was put on notice in the ten amendments to the Constitution that the People's fundamental rights were to be respected. It wasn't enough!

As government is made up of human beings , many for whom power and control over their fellows is an aphrodisiac , the potential always exists for the fatal error to come to pass in giving over our rights to these individuals , who act as agents government. The danger is that individuals who might , absent government , be the very ones trespassing against the rights of others may get elected to government office and now have the force of the state at their beck and call to help them carry out their private ambitions. Rather than employing force in the defense of the governed , these individuals now employ force at the expense of the liberty and security of those who gave up their right to private justice in exchange for government protection.

What has been the result? The men and women--not some faceless creature called the "Government"--have employed force in ways that we did not intend , and that to our detriment. In his book Libertarianism : A Primer David Boaz tells us how government uses fear and violence to take from us our liberty , not just in the area of politics and economics , but control over our very lives.

Judge Andrew Napolitano has quite a bit to say about government's expansion of its power over us during times of "war" in the following 3 part video series. The series actually consists of 4 vids , but the first really isn't content specific rich so I just included the relevant parts. :