The United States spends over a $100 billion dollars more a year on the military than it did at the height of the Cold War. What does it get year upon year for that money? Since 2001, America’s overseas war have led to nearly a million deaths. Ben Freeman discusses the intersection of interests that drive America’s military spending, including the private contractors who receive half of the US military budget and the universities, Hollywood movies, and media funded by the Pentagon or its arms manufacturers.
William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home Bold Type Books, 2025