William Hartung on the Trillion Dollar War Machine

As both parties are legislating criticism of socialism, Americans’ support for Medicare For All has intensified to the point where the old attacks may no longer work.

The United States spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military. This spending not only detracts from our ability to address pressing social problems but compels us into foreign wars to justify our vast arsenal. Sold to us in the name of security, our military industrial complex actually makes us far less safe.

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That’s the conclusion of William Hartung and Ben Freeman in their new book – The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home (Bold Type Books, November 2025).

Hartung and Freeman follow the profits of militarism from traditional Pentagon contractors, which receive more than half of the Pentagon’s budget, to the upstart high-tech firms that promote unproven and destabilizing technologies.

They unmask the enablers of the war machine – politicians, lobbyists, the media, Hollywood, and think tanks – whose work enriches a wealthy elite at the expense of everybody else, spreading conflict around the world and embroiling America in endless wars.