The Endless War
Another country is on fire. Your tax dollars bought some of the bombs. The defense stocks went up. The defense contractors got paid. The veterans came home broken. Nobody asked you.
The System
$886 billion. That's the US defense budget for FY2025. More than the next 10 countries combined. The money flows to contractors, the contractors fund campaigns, the campaigns produce politicians who vote for more money. The loop runs itself. The wars are a feature, not a bug.
US defense budget FY2025
Cost of post-9/11 wars
Deaths in post-9/11 wars
The US defense budget for FY2025 is $886 billion. The US spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined.
Brown University's Costs of War project: post-9/11 wars cost over $8 trillion and caused an estimated 900,000+ deaths (direct war deaths, including 387,000+ civilians).
The US operates approximately 750 military bases in 80+ countries.
Top 5 defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, RTX/Raytheon, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics) generated over $200 billion in combined revenue in 2024.
Let's hear the other side
...and see if it holds water
Not all defense spending is waste. Canada faces real security threats: Russian military activity near Canadian airspace ...
The Promise
They've been warning us for a century. Nye Committee hearings in the 1930s exposed war profiteers. Eisenhower named the military-industrial complex in 1961. Every generation rediscovers the same machine and every generation fails to dismantle it.
1934-1936: Nye Committee investigates WWI profiteering — 'merchants of death.' 93 hearings, 200+ witnesses including J.P. Morgan Jr.
1961: Eisenhower warns: 'We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.'
1964: Gulf of Tonkin incident — later proven to be at minimum exaggerated, at worst fabricated — used to escalate Vietnam. 58,000 Americans died.
2003: Iraq invasion based on WMD claims. No weapons found. Cost: $2+ trillion. Colin Powell's UN presentation cited fabricated intelligence.
2021: US withdraws from Afghanistan after 20 years. Taliban retakes the country in 11 days. $2.3 trillion spent.
The Reality
The executives get rich. The soldiers come home broken. The cycle continues because the people who profit are not the people who fight.
Military spending (2025, billions USD)
Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet earned $29 million in 2023. The company's stock rose 450%+ from 2001 to 2024.
US veteran suicide rate: approximately 17 per day (VA data). Over 30,000 post-9/11 veterans have died by suicide — more than the 7,000+ who died in combat.
Canada exported $15 billion in LAVs to Saudi Arabia (2014 deal). 165 Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan. Canada faces NATO pressure to reach 2% GDP defense spending.
What Works
Costa Rica proves there's another way. They abolished their military in 1948 and invested in people instead. The opportunity cost of endless war is everything else a society could build.
Costa Rica abolished its military in 1948. Redirected funds to education and healthcare. Life expectancy: 80 years. Literacy: 98%. Ranks above the US on multiple well-being indices.
The opportunity cost: $8 trillion could have funded universal healthcare for every American for decades, or rebuilt every bridge, road, and water system in the country.
What You Can Do
The machine runs on ignorance and apathy. The antidote is information. Follow the money. Ask who profits. Demand accountability.
Follow the money. OpenSecrets.org tracks defense contractor campaign contributions. Brown University's Costs of War project (watson.brown.edu/costsofwar) has the definitive accounting. Ask your MP where Canada's defense budget goes and who profits.