“Coming to terms with a job loss or have a home loan you can’t pay? Come to India to find peace.” Said the tourism minister Ambika Soni’s to those who have burnt their fingers in the global meltdown a few days back. Peace, indeed! Death toll has reached 200 in the Mumbai terrorist attacks. The terror ordeal that struck Mumbai on Wednesday night caused a loss of nearly Rs4,000 crore to the financial capital of the country. On Thursday the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange and Commodity exchanges were shut and many of the corporate offices had reported skeletal staff presence as security forces tried to overcome terrorists, who struck at different parts of the city.

Last month, the Lashkar-e-Toiba’s supreme religious and political head, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, made a signal speech to top functionaries: “The only language India understands is that of force, and that is the language it must be talked to in.” We would have saved much of the agony that followed if we had listened to his threat. People are calling for a bigger and stronger Government. It should be evident that a bigger government is not the solution.

The journalist Prannoy Roy just announced a “War on Terror” – to be fought by our The State. Libertarian Journalist Sauvik Chakraverti asks in his blog “Sounds familiar? Like Uncle Sam? War is popular. It is easy to get people behind a war, and war makes it easy for the state to grow. Never else does government grow as it does during war.” Politicians have started blaming Pakistan for the whole mess. If there is something we should prevent, it is a war with Pakistan.

Robert Higgs had rightly pointed out that war is the health of the state. Government enhances its power during war time. As Anthony Gregory wrote on lewrockwell.com “During Lincon’s War on the Southern States, the federal government implemented conscription for the first time, an income tax, and censorship in the form of locking up thousands of war critics and closing down hundreds of newspapers. During World War I, even criticizing the flag was deemed a crime, and dissidents were imprisoned and even deported. During World War II, America saw censorship and Japanese Internment, today defended by some on the more warmongering right. In the Cold War era, the feds spied on war protestors and conscription returned. We are seeing erosions of civil liberties today, with the war on terror, including in the suspension of habeas corpus to cage alleged terrorists, many of whom have been freed for their innocence, and many of whom have not but probably should be. In every case, the state only commits such acts with the tacit consent of many Americans.”

If people had the right to bear arms, it is highly unlikely that it would have happened. It is not even likely that the attempt would have been thought of. The case of Switzerland which stays secure without being involved in war is a case in point.