"War Is the Health of the State"

A WSJ columnist sees Obama pushing Israel into war.

...the longer the U.S. delays playing hardball with Iran, the sooner Israel is likely to strike.

... it is an abdication of a superpower's responsibility to outsource matters of war and peace to another state, however closely allied. President Obama has now ceded the driver's seat on Iran policy to Prime Minister Netanyahu. He would do better to take the wheel again, keeping in mind that Iran is beyond the reach of his eloquence, and keeping in mind, too, that very useful Roman adage, Si vis pacem, para bellum

So if Israel attempts a takedown of Iranian nuclear workshops?

...it could succeed at the price of oil at $300 a barrel, a Middle East war, and American servicemen caught in between.

To the Statist, war is a good thing, and a big war is an exceptionally good thing. There is nothing that the Statist can use to his ends more than war-footing. Virtually all of society can become quasi-militarized, as was observed by Bourne:

War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society these irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense.

Ask Wilson, Mussolini, or FDR.