|
Dear ,
Today the Quincy Institute’s Bill Hartung and Ben Freeman published The Trillion Dollar War Machine, a highly engaging book that traces the evolution of the military-industrial complex since President Eisenhower warned of the dangers of “misplaced power” and “unwarranted influence” wielded by the combination of self-interested arms companies and their allies in the military.
What Ben and Bill found is a war machine that today consumes twice as much of our tax money, while delivering less real security to the American people. We are spending more and more and getting less and less, yet we're blinded to this fact by the war machine’s influence over nearly every facet of American society, including the media, Hollywood, sports, the gaming industry, universities, and think tanks—areas the authors unmask in compelling detail.
It is no coincidence that the book is being released on Veterans Day. While we’re told that the $1 trillion war budget is necessary to “support the troops,” more than half of the Pentagon’s budget goes to private companies, not to military personnel. Weapons contractor executives get rich—buying multi-million dollar mansions to prove it—but military families are literally going hungry, with an estimated 25 percent facing food insecurity, even before the government shutdown. This is no way to honor our troops and veterans.
Kirkus Reviews calls The Trillion Dollar War Machine “a resounding denunciation of the military-industrial complex [and] a convincing argument for a leaner military and a more restrained approach to foreign arms sales.”
I call it essential reading for anyone who wants to pare back wasteful Pentagon spending and promote a more balanced approach to foreign affairs. If that’s you, you can purchase a copy here from an independent bookseller who will donate 5 percent of the proceeds to QI.
Warmly,
Lora Lumpe
CEO
|
|
