The Trillion Dollar War Machine That Barreled Toward Iran

Author William Hartung explains why the United States seems perpetually drawn into conflict.

Donald Trump campaigned against “endless wars.” Yet in late February, he launched a war against Iran that has already killed over one thousand people, including at least 175 in a strike on a girls’ elementary school. It is also burning through staggering sums of public money. Early estimates suggest the war could cost taxpayers between $1 billion to $2 billion a day. The first two days of strikes alone consumed $5.6 billion in munitions, raising alarm among lawmakers about depleted stockpiles and the mounting financial toll of another Middle Eastern war with no end in sight.

For decades, the United States has pursued “security” with bombs, missiles, and Pentagon budget increases, often with disastrous results. In The Trillion Dollar War Machine, foreign policy analysts William Hartung and Ben Freeman argue that this pattern is the result of a vast, entrenched military-industrial complex that has grown richer, more politically powerful, and more deeply embedded in American life over time. Since World War II, the U.S. has built a sprawling permanent war economy that links weapons manufacturers, lobbyists, think tanks, politicians, Hollywood, universities, the video game industry, and, increasingly, Silicon Valley tech companies. The result, Hartung and Freeman contend, is a system that pushes the country toward war while draining resources from urgent needs at home.

At a moment when the United States once again finds itself in a costly and escalating conflict in the Middle East, their argument carries renewed urgency. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Hartung and I spoke about who stands to profit from a war with Iran, how militarism has seeped into American politics and culture, and what it would take to build something like a peace movement powerful enough to confront it.

Indigo Olivier: If Americans want to understand why the United States seems perpetually drawn into new conflicts—from Iraq to Afghanistan to now Iran—what is the single most important structural factor that they should be paying attention to?

William Hartung: Our elected officials are almost de facto lobbyists for this industry because they benefit from campaign contributions, for catering to contractors in their states, almost like servicing the arms industry instead of servicing us. That means there’s not real debate on almost anything, but there’s a lot of bragging about steering money to one’s state, or defending a dysfunctional weapon built in one’s........

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