The assumption that governments have the right to wage war — to kill in our name — is so deeply embedded in politics and culture that it is rarely even noticed, let alone questioned. It is treated as natural, inevitable, part of the furniture of the world.

But it is not. It is a human construction: a set of ideas, habits and institutional practices that have been built over time, and sustained by repetition and belief. Like all such constructions, it depends on our continued – and silent – acquiescence.

Read the full essay here: How Power Works: Iran – how governments justify war