Nearly every increase in the power of the US government has been due to war and imperial adventures overseas. It is when a state decides to go to war that the iron fist behind the velvet glove "social contract" nonsense really materializes.
In our short existence as a country, war has been used as the most effective excuse to restrict civil liberties. From imprisoning dissenters, erecting a vast surveillance and police state, income tax withholding, and burying us and future generations in un-payable debt, war truly is the health of the state.
And it's trusty sidekick, the vague and abstract term "national security," is always uttered out of the mouth of anyone attempting to expand the scope of the state and end arguments.
We must ______ (carpet-bomb Muslims, restrict speech, impose starvation sanctions, or any evil government program you can think of) for the sake of "national security," and this euphemism that is used to maintain the institutional structures of empire is detrimental to liberty, as Jack Hunter explains:
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