Caging the Dogs of War - Robert Higgs - Mises Daily

Higgs' analysis here is familiar to those of us with knowledge of the role of government in society and/or Higgs excellent body of research. That said, this long post is an outstanding review of a set of values/principles that shape the thinking of those who adovcate for liberty and responsibility. These values include:

1. Non aggression and the valuing of human life.

2. Liberty

3. Individualism

4. Responsibility

In an accessible and sensitive analysis of the foundations and consequences of war Higgs makes a number of points worth considering.

First - "catastrophic success" in the current war. Thinking about the first (ultimate?) value described above and war one can readily see the two sides of the argument. Non aggression values life. Intervention in the form of war sacrifies life for a "higher" value or good. So the image of a catastrophic success describes a successful war - death and destruction on a scale (catastrophic) that achieves a value higher than life. I am reminded of Nixon's rationale when asked about the war in his time - in response to the question of why are we fighting he responded - for peace. Yep, an oxymoron but one that is consistent across demoncratic and republican administrations over time.

Higgs says it so much better -

In sum, when we ask ourselves who took the United States to war in Iraq (and keeps it engaged there) and what those individuals hoped (and still hope) to gain by doing so, we quickly come to appreciate what a roaring success this venture has been and continues to be for all of them. In view of the endless death and destruction being visited upon the hapless people of Iraq, however, not to mention the great and growing number of deaths, injuries, and mental disorders being suffered by US troops in the Mesopotamian killing fields, we might well describe this adventure as a catastrophic success.


Higgs goes on to make a provocative point, one that I wish was more widely debated. That is, the Warfare State is guided by a set of motivations that are designed to capture and expand rents - both economic and political. In fact, the warfare state moves to a society that conjoins economic and political activity in order to more effectively hold and expand power. Inevitably this process leads down a road of serfdom - a poverty of existence anticipated and articulated by Orwell, Huxley and others. Higgs' characterization:

Reality of Rule, which is to say, from the government's effectively having gone to war permanently against the bulk of the American people, as well as episodically against unfortunate groups of foreigners in the Third World, where the US government seeks to establish or maintain its hegemony. By saying that the government has placed itself in a state of war against most of the people — namely, all those outside its own supportive coalition — I mean no more and no less than what John Locke meant when he wrote about this condition in his Second Treatise of Government

There it is, a warfare state wages war - I am still trying to decide if this is indisciminate or conscious, but I tend to agree with Higgs. That is the war is internal against those who might prevent rent seeking, oppose rent seeking or passively fail to support the rent seeking as well as externally. The history of the US does confirm this former target or victim of government power. Think of Lincoln (actually the apparatus of war that quickly returned) and the Maryland legislature, Wilson and the actions taken across the US and the more recent Patriot Act. Think large and small actions of invasion against individual by the state in the interest of the warfare state. I will be flying with my family this weekend and as the state fights the war on terror, my wife and children will be subject to the more intimate of invasion of privacy at the airport. So will I.
Caging the Dogs of War - Robert Higgs - Mises Daily