Introduction
1. World War II global death toll. Estimates range widely depending on methodology and source. The figure of 70 to 85 million encompasses military and civilian deaths from combat, famine, and disease attributed to the war. See: Overy, Richard. The Oxford Illustrated History of World War Two. Oxford University Press, 2015; and Roberts, Andrew. The Storm of War. Harper, 2011.
2. Thomas S. Butler congressional service. Thomas Butler represented Pennsylvania’s 10th district and later chaired the House Naval Affairs Committee from 1919 to 1928. See: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/B001152.
3. MacGuire cash payment at Newark hotel. The $18,000 figure (approximately $400,000 in 2024 dollars) is drawn from Butler’s sworn testimony before the McCormack-Dickstein Committee, November 1934. Transcript available via the U.S. House of Representatives Historical Office.
4. Congressional committee final report. McCormack-Dickstein Committee, Special Committee on Un-American Activities, Final Report to the House of Representatives, February 15, 1935. Quoted language appears at page 29 of the original report. Suppressed testimony first published by John L. Spivak, New Masses, 1967.
5. New York Times coverage. The Times headline ran November 21, 1934. The paper dismissed Butler’s testimony as a “gigantic hoax” in its editorial coverage. The committee’s subsequent corroboration of Butler’s account received substantially less coverage. See also: Archer, Jules. The Plot to Seize the White House. Skyhorse Publishing, 1973 (reissued 2007).
Chapter 1
6. Fiscal Year 2024 defense budget. The Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2024 budget request was $886 billion. This figure excludes nuclear weapons spending within the Department of Energy (approximately $37.7 billion), certain military retirement and healthcare costs, and classified programs. Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller): comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/.
7. U.S. defense spending vs. other nations. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database documents U.S. defense spending as exceeding the next 10 countries combined as of 2023. SIPRI Military Expenditure Database: sipri.org/databases/milex.
Chapter 2
8. F-35 lifetime program cost. The $1.7 trillion figure reflects the Department of Defense’s Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) lifetime cost estimate for the F-35 program, including procurement and operations and support through 2088. The most current SAR figure is $1.727 trillion. See also: Government Accountability Office, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: DOD Needs to Complete Developmental Testing Before Making Significant New Investments, GAO-21-519, July 2021. gao.gov.
9. F-35 suppliers in 45 states. Lockheed Martin’s own public documentation lists suppliers across 45 states and Puerto Rico. See: Lockheed Martin F-35 program economic impact statements, lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/f-35.html.
10. Pentagon revolving door — 380 officials. Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Brass Parachutes: Defense Contractors’ Capture of Pentagon Officials Through the Revolving Door, November 2018. POGO tracked 380 high-ranking DoD officials and military officers who moved to the private defense sector between 2008 and 2018. pogo.org/reports/brass-parachutes. A 2021 GAO report found 1,700 senior officials had taken industry positions over a five-year period. GAO-21-104311, September 2021.
11. GAO documentation of cost-plus overruns. Government Accountability Office, Contingency Contracting: Agency Actions to Address Recommendations to Improve Oversight Have Been Mixed, GAO-23-105999, 2023. The GAO has issued more than 20 reports on cost-plus contracting problems in contingency operations since 2009. A running index is available at gao.gov/topics/defense-contracting.
Chapter 3
12. Veteran suicides exceeding combat deaths. Costs of War Project, Brown University, Suicides and Excess Deaths Among Post-9/11 Veterans and Service Members, 2021. The study estimated more than 30,177 post-9/11 veterans and active duty service members had died by suicide through 2021. watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/veterans/suicide.
13. Post-9/11 combat deaths. The figure of approximately 7,057 U.S. military personnel killed in post-9/11 wars (through 2021) is drawn from the same Costs of War database and DoD casualty records. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Costs of War Project: watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/.
14. Total deaths from post-9/11 wars. Costs of War Project, Direct War Deaths in Post-9/11 War Zones: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Other, September 2021. The range of 897,000 to 929,000 covers direct violence deaths across all theaters. watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human.
15. Civilian deaths among total. The estimate of approximately 387,000 civilian deaths is drawn from the same Costs of War report. The authors note this figure is a minimum estimate based on documented deaths and excludes the larger number of indirect deaths from disease and displacement attributable to the wars.
16. Total cost of post-9/11 wars at $8 trillion. Costs of War Project, The Costs of the Global War on Terror: $8 Trillion and 900,000 Deaths, September 2021. The $8 trillion figure includes past spending and projected future obligations including veterans’ care through 2050 and interest on war-related debt. watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2021/WarCosts.
Chapter 4
17. AUMF cited in 22 countries. Costs of War Project, Brown University, The 2001 AUMF: A Comprehensive Look at Where and How It Has Been Used, December 2021, updated from Congressional Research Service data through August 2021. The analysis documents 22 countries in which the AUMF has been cited to justify counterterrorism operations. watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2021/2001AUMF. The Congressional Research Service documented 19 countries through February 2018; the Brown analysis extended the count through 2021.
18. Cost growth on contingency contracts. Government Accountability Office, Contingency Contracting: Actions Needed to Improve DOD’s Management and Oversight of Contractors Supporting Overseas Operations, GAO-23-105999, March 2023. The report found average cost growth of more than 40 percent on major service contracts in active theaters. gao.gov.
19. Share the Sacrifice Act. H.R. 5158, 110th Congress, introduced October 2, 2007 by Representatives David Obey (D-WI), John Murtha (D-PA), and Jim McGovern (D-MA). The bill would have imposed a temporary war surtax to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It did not advance out of committee. Full legislative history: congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/5158.
20. Annual U.S. defense spending over $800 billion. The FY2024 enacted defense budget totaled $886 billion. Historical budget data from the DoD Comptroller confirms the budget has not fallen below $700 billion since FY2019. comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/. For context, the combined discretionary budgets for Education, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development in FY2024 totaled approximately $270 billion.
Further Reading
The following books provide context, depth, and different angles of approach for readers who want to pursue the arguments in this book further. They are organized loosely by subject.
The Original Work
Butler, Smedley D. War Is a Racket. Round Table Press, 1935. Available free at gutenberg.org. Butler’s original 51-page pamphlet remains the most direct statement of the argument this book updates. Read it alongside this one.
The War Economy and Military-Industrial Complex
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Farewell Address, January 17, 1961. Not a book, but essential. The text of Eisenhower’s speech warning about the military-industrial complex is available at eisenhowerlibrary.gov. He had intended to say ‘military-industrial-congressional complex.’ The word ‘congressional’ was cut before delivery.
Hartung, William D. Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex. Nation Books, 2011. The most thorough single-company examination of how a defense contractor shapes policy, budgets, and personnel decisions over decades.
Turse, Nick. The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives. Metropolitan Books, 2008. Maps the reach of the defense economy into universities, entertainment, local governments, and daily commercial life.
Wheeler, Winslow. The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It. Center for Defense Information, 2011. A practical guide to how the defense budget actually works, written by former congressional budget staff who watched it from the inside.
The Human Cost of War
Crawford, Neta C. The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Greenhouse Gas Emissions. MIT Press, 2022. The definitive accounting of the environmental costs of the post-9/11 wars by one of the founders of the Costs of War project.
Finkel, David. Thank You for Your Service. Sarah Crichton Books, 2013. Follows a group of Iraq War veterans through their return home and into the VA system. The most honest journalism on what the system actually does to the people who served in it.
Packer, George. The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. A first-hand account of the decision to invade Iraq and its consequences, by a journalist who supported the war and then documented what it actually produced.
War, Profit, and the Politics of Force
Klein, Naomi. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Metropolitan Books, 2007. Examines how crisis — including war — is used to advance economic agendas that would not survive normal political scrutiny. The Iraq reconstruction chapters are directly relevant.
Scahill, Jeremy. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Nation Books, 2007. The definitive account of private military contracting, from its origins to its peak in Iraq and Afghanistan. The book this chapter on the services layer draws on most heavily.
Vine, David. Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World. Metropolitan Books, 2015. Documents the 800-plus U.S. military bases in more than 70 countries, who benefits from them, and what they cost in money and political consequences.
Reform and Accountability
Bacevich, Andrew J. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Metropolitan Books, 2008. A retired Army colonel and Boston University historian on why American foreign policy keeps producing the same results regardless of which party holds office.
Fallows, James. Chickenhawk Nation. Originally published in The Atlantic, January 2015. Available online. The most precise short essay on the political consequences of the all-volunteer military and the gap between the people who make decisions about war and the people who fight it.
Goodman, Melvin A. National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. City Lights Books, 2013. A former CIA analyst on how the intelligence community, the military, and the defense industry interact to produce decisions that serve the system rather than the national interest.