By Jacob G. Hornberger
The Future of Freedom Foundation
April 24, 2026
There are, of course, consequences of the U.S. war on Iran that are easy to see. The deaths and injuries of thousands of Iranians. The deaths and injuries of dozens of U.S. soldiers. The massive destruction of homes, businesses, ships, and infrastructure in Iran and nearby countries. Gasoline prices and the prices of other things soaring. All easy to see.
But there are also unseen consequences of the war and, more generally, of the U.S. government's overall foreign policy of interventionism.
As longtime readers of my blog know, I have long contended that one of the reasons that the United States is besieged by mass murders is because the U.S. government has long been, to use Martin Luther King's term, the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world."
Americans have always assumed that the U.S. Empire's death machine would have no effect here at home because the millions of people the machine has targeted with death and suffering through sanctions, bombings, coups, invasions, wars of aggression, embargoes, blockades, kidnappings, torture, alliances with brutal regimes, and foreign aid are "over there." Virtually all the millions of victims have been foreigners, whose lives are considered to be of low value, especially compared to the lives of American citizens.
Thus, so long as there was little or no loss of American life, including U.S. soldiers, the notion has been that Americans need not concern themselves with the massive death and destruction that the U.S. Empire unleashes in other parts of the world. The American people could simply go about their lives, living normally with work, family, vacations, movies, and the like, and simply leave the killing of foreigners to the U.S. national-security establishment - i.e., the Pentagon, the enormous standing army, the vast military-industrial complex, the "defense" industry, the CIA, and the NSA.
But my contention has long been that that is just a pipe dream. Inevitably, I have contended, the massive death toll and the enormous injuries, maiming, and suffering wreaked on foreigners would inevitably seep into the subconsciousness of the American people here at home. In other words, even though virtually all of the death and destruction at the hands of the U.S. Empire occur "over there," the massive death toll and suffering would inevitably impact life here at home, even if only indirectly.
I contend that the mass killings of people here at home by what I call "off-kilter" people is a manifestation of this phenomenon.
Just a few days ago, a man in New York City took a machete into the city's subway system and slashed three people - for no reason whatsoever. For a long time prior to that, he had behaved in an "off-kilter" way but, as far as I know, he hadn't inflicted violence on anyone. Then, all of a sudden, he decided to go on his machete rampage until cops shot him dead.
I'm sure that there are now people in New York calling for machete control, much as they call for gun control whenever these mass killings take place. But the root of the problem is not machetes or guns. The root of the problem, I contend, is America's federal death machine.
The central message of the death machine is that the lives of foreigners don't have value. They are all considered no better than "gooks," the term U.S. officials used for the millions of people in Vietnam they were killing during their intervention in that country. Thus, it's no big deal to kill them, maim them, injure them, or impoverish them with sanctions, embargoes, and blockades. No big deal at all because the lives of foreigners simply have little or no value.
Consider, for example, the death machine's murder of those supposed drug dealers on the high seas in those little boats near Venezuela. Who cares about the fact that their lives have been summarily snuffed out by the U.S. military ? I don't see much concern among Americans for such murders. In fact, it seems to me that many Americans are highly enthusiastic about those killings. In their minds, the national-security state is simply keeping us "safe."
A few days ago, an American man killed 8 children, seven of whom were his. I would label him an "off-kilter" person. Or consider the former lieutenant governor of Virginia. Mired in a messy divorce and a custody battle, he simply murdered his wife and then killed himself. I'd label him "off-kilter" too.
Take a look at this article from USA Today: " Mass killings database: Every event since 2006." It states "3,283 victims have lost their lives in 639 mass killings since 2006."
Now, one might say that these mass killings cannot be related to the U.S. death machine because the death machine kills foreigners while the mass killers kill Americans. But while U.S. officials can distinguish between foreigners and Americans, given that it's obvious to them that the lives of foreigners have little or no value while the lives of Americans have high value, the mind of the off-kilter people might not be able to make that distinction. In the off-kilter mind, if the foreigner's life has no value, then neither does the life of an American citizen. Thus, for the off-kilter killer, it is just as logical to engage in mass killings of Americans as it is for the U.S. national-security state to engage in the mass killings of foreigners.
Achieving the status of the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world" is not something to be proud of, especially when the consequences of this "achievement," both seen and unseen, are so horrendous. To restore a sense of peace, tranquility, normality, and harmony both here and "over there," it is necessary to bring a permanent end to America's death machine, which necessarily entails a dismantling of America's national-security state and the restoration of America's founding systems of a limited-government republic and a non-interventionist foreign policy.
This article was originally published on The Future of Freedom Foundation.