Sending Their Sons and Husbands

Why do so many people accept with ease their political leaders’ declaration that the nation must go to war against X, even when X clearly is not attacking them, and must kill and die for the alleged defense of the nation?

Do they suddenly forget that their leaders are notorious liars, extortionists, and oppressors? Do they value their lives so little that they require no substantial reason to surrender them whenever their despicable leaders tell them to do so?

Or do they simply relish killing or sending their sons and husbands to kill in their name?

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Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute and Editor at Large of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.