Empire and Its Consequences: US Military Veterans Committing Suicide at the Rate of 18 Per Day

Ever notice the way certain basic human values quietly transform into their opposite on their way to becoming national policy? At the human level, the immorality of murder is fundamental, and most people understand the insanity of armed hatred.
Keeping these dark forces under wraps is essential to the existence of human society. So why is it, then, that at the abstract level of nationalism, those forces are honored, worshiped, saluted, extolled as glorious, and given command of an enormous budget? Why is it that their perpetuation via increasingly sophisticated technology is equated with national security and no one talks about the completely predictable negative consequences of basing security on murder and hatred? And why does it feel so naïve to be asking such questions?