While the Rest of Us Die: Secrets of America's Shadow Government (2020–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - National Insecurity - full transcript
America won the Cold War. But spent billions on the military over everyday people.
-If you ask a group
of randomly selected Americans
you might be surprised
at the results.
People might say that
they feel more confident
that we're being protected
from terrorist attacks.
But are their lives
as a whole more secure?
And the answer to that
is likely no.
-I can't breath.
I can't breath.
-Because security is more
than just the protection
against terrorist attacks.
It's one's health.
it's public safety.
All that comes together in how
people view their own security.
-But the U.S. government
views security
almost exclusively
in terms of military might.
Spending around
a trillion dollars a year
on a military they claim
will shield Americans from harm.
The reality is that even using
this narrow interpretation
the government
is losing the battle.
-National security is
the most basic level
but the threat to America's
national security
is greater right now than
any other time in our lifetime.
♪♪
our leaders have told us
one thing
under the bright lights.
-The protection of the lives
and property of Americans
is the responsibility
of all public officials.
-I care for trying.
-And it is my first duty
as president to protect
the American people.
-We have it so well
under control.
-But America's shadow government
has spent trillions of dollars
on secret plans
that serve one premise.
we're on our own.
-I have nothing.
Nothing.
America's vast military machine
never goes without.
♪♪
♪♪
North West Africa.
American special forces are on
patrol deep in the Niger desert.
-They were out on our patrol
trying to find local affiliates
of ISIS near the Mali border
when they were ambushed.
-The ambush was captured
by a camera mounted
on one of the soldier's helmets.
♪♪
I think of the worst
case scenario.
you think
you'll never be left alone.
[ Gunfire ]
-[ Panting ]
-By the time helicopters
were able to come in
it was too late.
left to die.
♪♪
[ Gunshots ]
how do we let American troops
get abandoned?
and it's the epitome
of how little at times
our political leadership
cares about the troops.
♪♪
that raised
a lot of questions,
what the hell were the soldiers
doing in Niger
in the first place?
-Do the American people
know they're there
and have they been asked whether
it's the right thing to do?
This is what happens when you
have war without accountability.
-I would not at this time draw
any particular conclusion
from the incident
that happened yesterday.
though,
that we're having enormous
success against the core
of the very heart
of this movement.
♪♪
-It really is a beautiful case
of how the U.S. military really
is out there in the world
with very little knowledge
back in the United States.
♪♪
America was planning
a mission to Mars.
The early phases
of the space force
and American sons
were being slaughtered
in Niger by $50 AK-47s.
We have prioritized weapons
systems and defense contractors
and the needs
of corporate interests
over the needs of our sons
Detroit and L.A.
♪♪
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
♪♪
open this gate.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
tear down this wall.
[ Cheers and applause ]
the United States has been the
world's undisputed superpower.
♪♪
-And while it's true that Russia
has an equivalent number
they have a third world economy.
And while it is true that China
has a competitive
it has a third world military.
the truth of the matter
is that no country
no country has the capacity
to wage war in the way
and the United States
is the sole superpower.
♪♪
-But it didn't come cheap.
The United States possesses
the most powerful military force
and with 1.3 million
over a million reservists
107
full-time civilians,
The Department of Defense is the
largest employer in the world.
the United States
spends more on defense
than the combined total
of the next 10 countries.
♪♪
global military spending
is done by our government.
the military budget
is over $700 billion,
but if you add
in the military work done
by like the Department of Energy
and other parts
generally estimates
are that the real spending
on military in the U.S.
enormous amounts of money.
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
a peace, right?
The country's been at war
for decades now.
in education and infrastructure
and foreign aid.
There's all kinds of things it
can buy with its peace dividend.
-And I remember the early 90s
and the hopefulness.
you had the end
of the Cold War,
and the world could really have
gone in a different direction.
-All such hope
for a peace dividend
ended when the government took
the American people back to war.
after 9/11,
President Bush
declared a war on terror.
but it does not in there.
It will not end
until every terrorist group
stopped and defeated.
[ Applause ]
-What followed was
a militarization
both in the United States
and abroad.
President Bush
declared a national emergency
and he called up reservists
basically amplifying
the military forces
available to him
for overseas deployment.
the first salvo
in the American war on terror
was fired when U.S. forces
attacked Afghanistan.
you had a situation
after 9/11
where you had
a political leadership
people who had never
served themselves
and viewed people like me
and others as pieces
on a chessboard or a video game.
it's the ultimate
disrespect to our country.
Our military is supposed
to be used as a last resort
and it's not supposed
to be abused.
-And the war on terror becomes
a new justification
towards the spy agencies.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing,
all those firms.
There was one famous conference
call a couple of years ago
war is
not good for people,
it's really
been great for business.
defense contractors
have seen
their profits quadruple.
-The war on terror is basically
a welfare program
the companies that provide
the planes and the bombs
because it's incredibly
profitable
for weapons manufacturers.
military spending
went up 10 percent.
-But many of the weapons systems
that defense contractors supply
or have little practical use
to soldiers on the front lines
in most conflicts.
-We continue to dump billions
of dollars
in weapons systems like the F-35
yet the defense contractors
continue to push.
-Each F-35 fighter jet costs
over $100 million.
And with the entire program
estimated to cost U.S.
it's the most expensive
defense program ever.
it's over budget.
that person would be kicked out
of the military a long time ago.
♪♪
the education, the health care,
they suddenly become disposable
because we started
asking Americans
to sacrifice their well-being
in the face of an opponent.
-But who is that opponent
and why does it keep changing
and why are we still fighting?
-The national emergency
that was declared after 9/11
is still in place
almost 20 years later
and is being used for purposes
that have nothing
to do with 9/11.
and George Bush fell for it.
And we're still being
bled out today.
but his objectives
have been accomplished.
His objectives continue
to be furthered
our fabric
of our country every single day.
and it's what could bring down
America if we're not vigilant.
[ Gunfire ]
♪♪
-The idea behind
these military bases
is that they're there
for security.
do they render the United States
more secure?
I think you can see some reasons
why hundreds of military bases
might actually
be counterproductive.
♪♪
♪♪
-The major sin of war
is that the United States
has been involved
in the 21st century
are under the rubric of
the global war on terrorism.
And how did that global war
on terrorism start?
you usually say, is 9/11,
when Al Qaeda flew planes
into the World Trade Center
and into the Pentagon.
-Can't know where the explosion.
We heard there was
a plane down here.
-I'm frustrated with the country
as a whole.
As long as we're going
to let people off the hook
Iraq,
Iran and places like that,
this is going to continue.
-This provoked a lot of short
rending in the United States.
Why do they hate us
they hate our ideology.
But that way
of narrating it misses
which is Osama bin Laden's
reason.
-Bin Laden's stated goal was
clear and so was his rally cry.
He was able to use our presence
in the Middle East
as a way to motivate people
around the world to fight us.
It's something that most
Americans can't understand.
People don't attack us
because they hate our freedom.
They don't attack us even
because they hate our president.
They attack us
because they think we're wrong
and that they're right.
They view themselves
as freedom fighters
against people
who are imposing their will
over their sacred land
and their sacred space.
♪♪
the U.S. government
has put American troops
in harm's way across the globe.
[ Gunfire ]
where our assets
are being utilized.
What started out
as the war on terror
America's never ending war
with any number of enemies
can't pronounce
or can't find on the map.
-There is an armed conflict
that we have been in since 2001
when Congress
passed the Authorization
which authorized the president
to use military force
against those who planned 9/11
and who aided
and abetted the planners.
That really meant Al Qaeda
and the Taliban.
-Allahu akbar!
-So it's become kind of a blank
check for whatever
war making against
terrorist organizations
any administration
wants to engage in.
U.S.
Special Operations Forces
were at some point in that year
in more than 140 countries.
that's a majority
of the countries on our planet.
[ Gunfire ]
-And so we end up
in the situation
where we're involved
in a seemingly endless war
in countries
they wouldn't even be able to
tell you all of the countries
in which we're at war right now.
♪♪
-Whoo!
-The government's decision
to deploy troops
is often
only revealed by tragedy.
most Americans didn't know
we had American troops in Niger.
-And the degree to which many
of the operations
that are happening
are so secretive
that even the American people
are not aware who the enemy
is that we're fighting.
That's really
a shocking state of affairs.
[ Gunfire ]
- [ Panting ]
it's an everywhere war.
America is constantly at war
everywhere around the globe.
The sun never sets on
our military operations
because we have people in
so many places around the world.
-Key to our government's
ability to wage war
anywhere in the world
at any time
is a vast global network
of military bases.
the United States
has fought the global war
on terrorism
with military bases.
♪♪
we're talking about a number
roughly at 750.
it's 750.
they resemble mini cities.
-Those outposts get developed
to the point
where they feel like
as a lot of people
call them little Americans.
you have McDonald's,
"Star Trek" fan clubs.
♪♪
-This network of overseas
U.S. military bases
dates back to the early days
of the Cold War
when the United States
was locked in a struggle
for global supremacy
with the Soviet Union.
the Cold War
almost ended in Armageddon
when Soviet nuclear missiles
were discovered in Cuba.
♪♪
-I don't think the world
has ever come closer
to a nuclear war than it did
in the Cuban missile crisis.
The President of
the United States had said
he was willing to go to war
to get the Soviet
nuclear missiles out of Cuba.
♪♪
-But the installation of Soviet
missiles on the island
is only half the story.
♪♪
-The part that we leave out
the things started when
the United States put missiles
pointed at the Soviet Union.
-The U.S. had moved
nuclear missiles
allowing America to destroy
major Russian cities in minutes.
♪♪
from Moscow's perspective,
was the provocation
and the reason that the Soviets
retaliated by putting
their missiles in Cuba.
they never knew the truth that
their own government's decision
to place nukes in Turkey
could have killed them.
-We call it the Cuban
missile crisis.
I think we might as well call it
that Turkish missile crisis.
♪♪
-And while 60 years later
these bases are seen as crucial
perhaps even
encouraged our leaders
to pursue a more reckless agenda
that risks American lives.
-We have to talk
about what these
military bases do to policy.
If you have 750 foreign
military bases
military solutions
come really easily to hand.
-Iraq continues to flaunt
its hostility toward America
and to support terror.
The Iraqi regime has plotted
to develop anthrax and nerve gas
and nuclear weapons
for over a decade.
-It's become so easy
in the United States
to slip from this country
is doing things
that we in Washington
don't like to
something must be done.
-States like these
and their terrorist
arming to threaten
the peace of the world.
The price of indifference
would be catastrophic.
♪♪
-Before it was even decided
and discovered
you had members of
the Bush administration
who were looking for an
opportunity to get within Iraq
and exercise regime change
from Saddam Hussein.
[ Explosions ]
♪♪
at this hour,
American and coalition forces
are in the early stages
to free its people and to defend
the world from grave danger.
♪♪
[ Singing in native language ]
the Bush administration
had argued Saddam Hussein
posing an existential threat
to the United States.
there is no doubt
that Saddam Hussein now
has weapons of mass destruction.
♪♪
-The pretext was the potential
existence of weapons
of mass destruction.
administration knew
full well there was not
any realistic threat that WMD
could be used in any way
that would jeopardize
the United States.
[ Applause ]
plans were being made
to reshape the balance
of power in the region
with seemingly little regard for
the lives that would be lost.
♪♪
-And Iraq was a country
that had long been a thorn
in the side of
the United States.
George W. Bush's father
had led military hostilities
against Saddam Hussein
after his army
invaded the neighboring country
of Kuwait.
-It is not the United States
against Iraq.
It is Iraq against the world.
annexing the country
and its vast oil reserves.
the United States assembled
a massive
international coalition
to drive Iraqi forces
out of Kuwait.
he remained in power.
-[ Speaking native language ]
a small group of powerful
Washington insiders
from a little known
think tank began to call
for regime change in Iraq.
-So the Project for
a New American Century
is this brain child of a group
who continually call for America
to find the next big enemy
that America can take on and
define itself in an opposite to.
you see America understand
that Saddam Hussein
is an evil figure.
They believe that he is
the type of enemy
that the American people
will accept.
this group are constantly
lobbying Bill Clinton
to fight Iraq
and they keep telling him
this is the next big move
in order to secure American
security and American power.
they found a willing partner
in President George W. Bush.
♪♪
-Before it was even decided
and discovered
you had members
of the Bush administration
who were looking for an
opportunity to get within Iraq
and exercise regime change
from Saddam Hussein.
♪♪
♪♪
it's worth noting
that there is relatively
little discussed
about what happened after.
but we'll be here for a while.
It's going to be hard.
then what?
And the big question
about how are you
how are you going to rebuild it,
wasn't something that was much
discussed in Washington
in the run up to the war.
But it would come to bedevil us
for years to come.
-And would end up killing
thousands of American troops.
♪♪
all seem to be
going well for U.S. forces.
U.S. forces were in Baghdad,
Saddam Hussein's
government had melted.
[ Cheers and applause ]
there was a feeling that
the mission had been
accomplished.
-Major combat operations in Iraq
have ended.
the United States
and our allies have prevailed.
[ Cheers and applause ]
it was clear that we had
just finished the first chapter
of what was going
to be a very long book.
indistinct shouting ]
And the reality is the furthest
thing from mission accomplished.
-I got to the city of Baghdad
at the same time
the president said
the mission was accomplished.
stationed in one of the city's
most dangerous neighborhoods.
with no adequate vehicles,
we didn't have
enough water to go around.
and we had to scrap
for ammunition and body armor?
-But the troops were rushed
into the region
without adequate equipment
on the back of lies
told about weapons
of mass destruction.
-Our vehicles are not armored.
We're digging pieces
of rusted scrap metal
to put on our vehicles
to take into combat.
you go to war
with the army you have,
not the army you might want
or wish to have at a later time.
-The Bush administration
also claimed
they'd be greeted as liberators.
-Yeah.
[ Gunshots ]
-Now soldiers
like Paul Rieckhoff
found themselves occupiers
in an increasingly hostile land.
♪♪
-[ Shouting ]
[ Gunfire ]
-Only someone who's never
experienced war
thinks that it's quick
and easy and simple.
war is messy,
war is painful.
-The ones that are fighting
truly believe
just as we do.
we fought like the Indians.
The man will fight
with whatever he has at hand.
U.S. forces were
totally unprepared.
they were unprepared
in terms of equipment.
our soldiers
would drive around in Humvees,
in four wheel drive vehicles
that lacked
any meaningful protection
against small arms fire
or roadside bombs.
♪♪
the political elites
found sanctuary
in a fortified compound.
we were in the streets
bleeding and dying.
♪♪
we actually need
to send some people over
administer
and rebuild this country.
and it turned pretty quickly
to the large compound
right smack dab
in the center of Baghdad.
This place soon got a name.
the dangerous Iraq
this area inside
was called the Green Zone.
♪♪
-The Green Zone quickly became
a four square mile
piece of America
in the heart of Baghdad.
♪♪
you could get bacon
cheeseburgers
in Iraqi restaurants,
and you could get a drink.
I didn't know there was
going to be a steaks out here.
-My unit was on the other side
of the river
from the Green Zone.
So while these guys
were sleeping
in palatial palaces
we were facing hostility
and riots
and the manifestation of what
would become the insurgency.
♪♪
it became part of the problem
that... that elites
could insulate themselves
from the destruction
that they had wrought
and they could pursue
their... their silly ideas
that Iraq was going to quickly
turn into a miniature
version of America.
-People who thought we were
going to roll into Iraq
and make it look like New Jersey
were... were dangerously
disconnected and out of touch
with the reality.
but Iraq is a place
that motivated
hundreds of thousands
of mostly young men
to come and fight against us.
[ Gunshot ]
-And kill Americans.
♪♪
While U.S. soldiers
began to feel the brunt
corporations were raking
in profits by the billions.
-The great American
General Smedley Butler
and Iraq was definitely
a racket.
And the American troops
were not in on it.
The American troops
had to scrape and scrap
while companies like Halliburton
were getting no-bid contracts.
-Private companies made
an estimated $140 billion
securing lucrative contracts
reconstruction
and oil production.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
[ Explosion ]
-War shouldn't be about profit.
and it should be something
that we try to end
as quickly as possible.
It shouldn't be a bonanza
for scumbags to come in
and that's what we saw.
We saw scumbags
and grifters come in
and get rich off Iraq while we
lost our legs and our friends.
So that cuts to maybe
the most outrageous part
of America's involvement
in Iraq and Afghanistan
is that some people gave
everything and others got rich.
They want the war to go on
so they can make more money
and buy champagne.
That cuts to the core
of how unequal it was
and how dangerous it was
for our national security
to have the profit
motive introduced
on a level
we'd never seen before.
♪♪
-Major American combat
operations in Iraq
eventually wound down
in December 2011.
but the cost to Americans went
way beyond the dollars spent.
500 U.S.
service members
would be killed in action.
missing limbs,
wracked by
post-traumatic stress.
-We're really good
at sending people to war.
We're really good at paying
to send people to war.
We're really bad
at bringing people home
and taking care of them
once they get back.
Guys like Paul Wolfowitz
and Don Rumsfeld
you have.
and then you
come home to the VA you have.
which was a VA that didn't know
didn't know how to treat
didn't know about ear injuries
and the other kinds of wounds
we were facing.
And already we've lost
more people to suicide
than we've lost on the ground
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And we will lose many more
in the decades to come.
♪♪
-In the vacuum left by
the removal of Saddam's regime
extremism flourished and many
more lives would be lost.
you get ISIS after about 10
or 11 years of... of...
Of the crisis caused by
the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And ISIS is... is a real threat
to regional stability.
-The fight against ISIS
has claimed tens of thousands
but it has done something else.
Kept the business of war going.
supposedly,
the attempt to
make the world safe
but it produces insecurity.
And then that insecurity
justifies
more of the same military
intervention and spending.
♪♪
-Our government has spent
trillions of dollars
over the last two decades
fighting perceived enemies
across the globe.
But has it really made us safer?
I can take the mask off?
- Yes.
- Okay.
but really our attention.
preparing for
a global pandemic
but in terms of the time
and thinking
of senior policymakers.
♪♪
2020...
The first confirmed death
from COVID-19
is reported
in the United States.
one person
passed away overnight.
000 miles away,
highlighting a grim reality.
that war has raged on
while problems that threaten
the lives of Americans
back home have been ignored.
February 2020,
there was supposedly
a peace agreement signed.
But there's been no peace for
American soldiers for 19 years.
and there's no peace
in the region.
[ Gunfire ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-The original mission
of the Afghan war
was aimed at toppling
the Taliban government
so that the United States
and allied forces
specifically Osama bin Laden.
-And Afghanistan
has become the place
that Osama bin Laden
hoped it would become.
that would take our eye
off the ball.
And Afghanistan is in some ways
part of the reason
why we can't prepare adequately
for a pandemic.
think about how much
better prepared
we could have been
for the coronavirus.
♪♪
♪♪
preparing
for a global pandemic
but in terms of the time and
thinking of senior policymakers.
-But where is the PPE?
Where are the ventilators?
♪♪
-And it's a sad reflection
on this society
and yet nurses have had
to wear garbage bags
to protect themselves
from patients in hospitals.
♪♪
-The pandemic is hurting America
in ways that Osama bin Laden
and in my view,
is the greatest modern threat
to our national security
we've ever seen.
-But the pandemic isn't the
only threat to national security
that the ongoing war
in Afghanistan
has distracted us from.
-When you look at the
most significant attack
that has been perpetrated
against Americans
there was a cyber attack
in 2016.
hello.
of disinformation targeted
at American voters.
-We viewed Russia as a regional
power very famously.
that's what
President Obama called Russia,
much to Putin's chagrin.
We thought that Russia
is not a threat to us.
Russia's military
is not a threat to us.
there is there's no way
that Russia can undermine
the United States.
And we were too late
to recognize this threat.
for instance, the war on terror.
-We'll never know conclusively
whether those attacks
but it was the most
significant attack
directed against
the United States
and one that we continue to be
woefully unprepared to defend.
Twitter was
hacked by a 17-year-old.
We're lucky that that hacker
just used it
to get himself some Bitcoin
and not start a nuclear war.
♪♪
-I think that we've started
to realize
that not only can our government
not take care of us
but they can't even carry out
the basic necessity
of taking care
of our national security.
and those threats
are more than just bombs
or hijacked airplanes.
It's microscopic
virus particles.
It's potential cyber attacks.
they need to know
that they have security
when it comes to their health.
-We may get to the point
where more people are killed
by COVID in the United States
than were killed
in the second World War.
and I think that it's making it
obvious that this government
that has completely sold itself
on its ability
to protect us
has failed in every regard.
a shadow America that benefits
one group of people
at the expense
of the greater good.
All they need is for you
not to pay attention.
All they need
is for you not to know
where America's sons
and daughters are dying
or how much money they spend
on a weapons system
or where they're
deploying troops.
They hope
you don't pay attention
that's how this happens.
That's how billions
of dollars are spent.
That's how cities
are left vulnerable.
That's how pandemics spread.
-And so it's maybe a time
for us to rethink
about what makes us safe and
and what really endangers us.
-We kind of had a phrase
decades ago
in the prep industry called
72 hours to animal.
We don't believe that anymore.
We believe it's more like
72 seconds
or 72 minutes to animal.
Chaos is going to
break out within
the first hour or hours.
they take care of themselves.
you're absolutely on your own.
Government's number one priority
is taking care of themselves.
continuity of government,
taking care
of the elected officials.
-Back up!
♪♪
of randomly selected Americans
you might be surprised
at the results.
People might say that
they feel more confident
that we're being protected
from terrorist attacks.
But are their lives
as a whole more secure?
And the answer to that
is likely no.
-I can't breath.
I can't breath.
-Because security is more
than just the protection
against terrorist attacks.
It's one's health.
it's public safety.
All that comes together in how
people view their own security.
-But the U.S. government
views security
almost exclusively
in terms of military might.
Spending around
a trillion dollars a year
on a military they claim
will shield Americans from harm.
The reality is that even using
this narrow interpretation
the government
is losing the battle.
-National security is
the most basic level
but the threat to America's
national security
is greater right now than
any other time in our lifetime.
♪♪
our leaders have told us
one thing
under the bright lights.
-The protection of the lives
and property of Americans
is the responsibility
of all public officials.
-I care for trying.
-And it is my first duty
as president to protect
the American people.
-We have it so well
under control.
-But America's shadow government
has spent trillions of dollars
on secret plans
that serve one premise.
we're on our own.
-I have nothing.
Nothing.
America's vast military machine
never goes without.
♪♪
♪♪
North West Africa.
American special forces are on
patrol deep in the Niger desert.
-They were out on our patrol
trying to find local affiliates
of ISIS near the Mali border
when they were ambushed.
-The ambush was captured
by a camera mounted
on one of the soldier's helmets.
♪♪
I think of the worst
case scenario.
you think
you'll never be left alone.
[ Gunfire ]
-[ Panting ]
-By the time helicopters
were able to come in
it was too late.
left to die.
♪♪
[ Gunshots ]
how do we let American troops
get abandoned?
and it's the epitome
of how little at times
our political leadership
cares about the troops.
♪♪
that raised
a lot of questions,
what the hell were the soldiers
doing in Niger
in the first place?
-Do the American people
know they're there
and have they been asked whether
it's the right thing to do?
This is what happens when you
have war without accountability.
-I would not at this time draw
any particular conclusion
from the incident
that happened yesterday.
though,
that we're having enormous
success against the core
of the very heart
of this movement.
♪♪
-It really is a beautiful case
of how the U.S. military really
is out there in the world
with very little knowledge
back in the United States.
♪♪
America was planning
a mission to Mars.
The early phases
of the space force
and American sons
were being slaughtered
in Niger by $50 AK-47s.
We have prioritized weapons
systems and defense contractors
and the needs
of corporate interests
over the needs of our sons
Detroit and L.A.
♪♪
[ Camera shutter clicks ]
♪♪
open this gate.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
tear down this wall.
[ Cheers and applause ]
the United States has been the
world's undisputed superpower.
♪♪
-And while it's true that Russia
has an equivalent number
they have a third world economy.
And while it is true that China
has a competitive
it has a third world military.
the truth of the matter
is that no country
no country has the capacity
to wage war in the way
and the United States
is the sole superpower.
♪♪
-But it didn't come cheap.
The United States possesses
the most powerful military force
and with 1.3 million
over a million reservists
107
full-time civilians,
The Department of Defense is the
largest employer in the world.
the United States
spends more on defense
than the combined total
of the next 10 countries.
♪♪
global military spending
is done by our government.
the military budget
is over $700 billion,
but if you add
in the military work done
by like the Department of Energy
and other parts
generally estimates
are that the real spending
on military in the U.S.
enormous amounts of money.
[ Camera shutters clicking ]
a peace, right?
The country's been at war
for decades now.
in education and infrastructure
and foreign aid.
There's all kinds of things it
can buy with its peace dividend.
-And I remember the early 90s
and the hopefulness.
you had the end
of the Cold War,
and the world could really have
gone in a different direction.
-All such hope
for a peace dividend
ended when the government took
the American people back to war.
after 9/11,
President Bush
declared a war on terror.
but it does not in there.
It will not end
until every terrorist group
stopped and defeated.
[ Applause ]
-What followed was
a militarization
both in the United States
and abroad.
President Bush
declared a national emergency
and he called up reservists
basically amplifying
the military forces
available to him
for overseas deployment.
the first salvo
in the American war on terror
was fired when U.S. forces
attacked Afghanistan.
you had a situation
after 9/11
where you had
a political leadership
people who had never
served themselves
and viewed people like me
and others as pieces
on a chessboard or a video game.
it's the ultimate
disrespect to our country.
Our military is supposed
to be used as a last resort
and it's not supposed
to be abused.
-And the war on terror becomes
a new justification
towards the spy agencies.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing,
all those firms.
There was one famous conference
call a couple of years ago
war is
not good for people,
it's really
been great for business.
defense contractors
have seen
their profits quadruple.
-The war on terror is basically
a welfare program
the companies that provide
the planes and the bombs
because it's incredibly
profitable
for weapons manufacturers.
military spending
went up 10 percent.
-But many of the weapons systems
that defense contractors supply
or have little practical use
to soldiers on the front lines
in most conflicts.
-We continue to dump billions
of dollars
in weapons systems like the F-35
yet the defense contractors
continue to push.
-Each F-35 fighter jet costs
over $100 million.
And with the entire program
estimated to cost U.S.
it's the most expensive
defense program ever.
it's over budget.
that person would be kicked out
of the military a long time ago.
♪♪
the education, the health care,
they suddenly become disposable
because we started
asking Americans
to sacrifice their well-being
in the face of an opponent.
-But who is that opponent
and why does it keep changing
and why are we still fighting?
-The national emergency
that was declared after 9/11
is still in place
almost 20 years later
and is being used for purposes
that have nothing
to do with 9/11.
and George Bush fell for it.
And we're still being
bled out today.
but his objectives
have been accomplished.
His objectives continue
to be furthered
our fabric
of our country every single day.
and it's what could bring down
America if we're not vigilant.
[ Gunfire ]
♪♪
-The idea behind
these military bases
is that they're there
for security.
do they render the United States
more secure?
I think you can see some reasons
why hundreds of military bases
might actually
be counterproductive.
♪♪
♪♪
-The major sin of war
is that the United States
has been involved
in the 21st century
are under the rubric of
the global war on terrorism.
And how did that global war
on terrorism start?
you usually say, is 9/11,
when Al Qaeda flew planes
into the World Trade Center
and into the Pentagon.
-Can't know where the explosion.
We heard there was
a plane down here.
-I'm frustrated with the country
as a whole.
As long as we're going
to let people off the hook
Iraq,
Iran and places like that,
this is going to continue.
-This provoked a lot of short
rending in the United States.
Why do they hate us
they hate our ideology.
But that way
of narrating it misses
which is Osama bin Laden's
reason.
-Bin Laden's stated goal was
clear and so was his rally cry.
He was able to use our presence
in the Middle East
as a way to motivate people
around the world to fight us.
It's something that most
Americans can't understand.
People don't attack us
because they hate our freedom.
They don't attack us even
because they hate our president.
They attack us
because they think we're wrong
and that they're right.
They view themselves
as freedom fighters
against people
who are imposing their will
over their sacred land
and their sacred space.
♪♪
the U.S. government
has put American troops
in harm's way across the globe.
[ Gunfire ]
where our assets
are being utilized.
What started out
as the war on terror
America's never ending war
with any number of enemies
can't pronounce
or can't find on the map.
-There is an armed conflict
that we have been in since 2001
when Congress
passed the Authorization
which authorized the president
to use military force
against those who planned 9/11
and who aided
and abetted the planners.
That really meant Al Qaeda
and the Taliban.
-Allahu akbar!
-So it's become kind of a blank
check for whatever
war making against
terrorist organizations
any administration
wants to engage in.
U.S.
Special Operations Forces
were at some point in that year
in more than 140 countries.
that's a majority
of the countries on our planet.
[ Gunfire ]
-And so we end up
in the situation
where we're involved
in a seemingly endless war
in countries
they wouldn't even be able to
tell you all of the countries
in which we're at war right now.
♪♪
-Whoo!
-The government's decision
to deploy troops
is often
only revealed by tragedy.
most Americans didn't know
we had American troops in Niger.
-And the degree to which many
of the operations
that are happening
are so secretive
that even the American people
are not aware who the enemy
is that we're fighting.
That's really
a shocking state of affairs.
[ Gunfire ]
- [ Panting ]
it's an everywhere war.
America is constantly at war
everywhere around the globe.
The sun never sets on
our military operations
because we have people in
so many places around the world.
-Key to our government's
ability to wage war
anywhere in the world
at any time
is a vast global network
of military bases.
the United States
has fought the global war
on terrorism
with military bases.
♪♪
we're talking about a number
roughly at 750.
it's 750.
they resemble mini cities.
-Those outposts get developed
to the point
where they feel like
as a lot of people
call them little Americans.
you have McDonald's,
"Star Trek" fan clubs.
♪♪
-This network of overseas
U.S. military bases
dates back to the early days
of the Cold War
when the United States
was locked in a struggle
for global supremacy
with the Soviet Union.
the Cold War
almost ended in Armageddon
when Soviet nuclear missiles
were discovered in Cuba.
♪♪
-I don't think the world
has ever come closer
to a nuclear war than it did
in the Cuban missile crisis.
The President of
the United States had said
he was willing to go to war
to get the Soviet
nuclear missiles out of Cuba.
♪♪
-But the installation of Soviet
missiles on the island
is only half the story.
♪♪
-The part that we leave out
the things started when
the United States put missiles
pointed at the Soviet Union.
-The U.S. had moved
nuclear missiles
allowing America to destroy
major Russian cities in minutes.
♪♪
from Moscow's perspective,
was the provocation
and the reason that the Soviets
retaliated by putting
their missiles in Cuba.
they never knew the truth that
their own government's decision
to place nukes in Turkey
could have killed them.
-We call it the Cuban
missile crisis.
I think we might as well call it
that Turkish missile crisis.
♪♪
-And while 60 years later
these bases are seen as crucial
perhaps even
encouraged our leaders
to pursue a more reckless agenda
that risks American lives.
-We have to talk
about what these
military bases do to policy.
If you have 750 foreign
military bases
military solutions
come really easily to hand.
-Iraq continues to flaunt
its hostility toward America
and to support terror.
The Iraqi regime has plotted
to develop anthrax and nerve gas
and nuclear weapons
for over a decade.
-It's become so easy
in the United States
to slip from this country
is doing things
that we in Washington
don't like to
something must be done.
-States like these
and their terrorist
arming to threaten
the peace of the world.
The price of indifference
would be catastrophic.
♪♪
-Before it was even decided
and discovered
you had members of
the Bush administration
who were looking for an
opportunity to get within Iraq
and exercise regime change
from Saddam Hussein.
[ Explosions ]
♪♪
at this hour,
American and coalition forces
are in the early stages
to free its people and to defend
the world from grave danger.
♪♪
[ Singing in native language ]
the Bush administration
had argued Saddam Hussein
posing an existential threat
to the United States.
there is no doubt
that Saddam Hussein now
has weapons of mass destruction.
♪♪
-The pretext was the potential
existence of weapons
of mass destruction.
administration knew
full well there was not
any realistic threat that WMD
could be used in any way
that would jeopardize
the United States.
[ Applause ]
plans were being made
to reshape the balance
of power in the region
with seemingly little regard for
the lives that would be lost.
♪♪
-And Iraq was a country
that had long been a thorn
in the side of
the United States.
George W. Bush's father
had led military hostilities
against Saddam Hussein
after his army
invaded the neighboring country
of Kuwait.
-It is not the United States
against Iraq.
It is Iraq against the world.
annexing the country
and its vast oil reserves.
the United States assembled
a massive
international coalition
to drive Iraqi forces
out of Kuwait.
he remained in power.
-[ Speaking native language ]
a small group of powerful
Washington insiders
from a little known
think tank began to call
for regime change in Iraq.
-So the Project for
a New American Century
is this brain child of a group
who continually call for America
to find the next big enemy
that America can take on and
define itself in an opposite to.
you see America understand
that Saddam Hussein
is an evil figure.
They believe that he is
the type of enemy
that the American people
will accept.
this group are constantly
lobbying Bill Clinton
to fight Iraq
and they keep telling him
this is the next big move
in order to secure American
security and American power.
they found a willing partner
in President George W. Bush.
♪♪
-Before it was even decided
and discovered
you had members
of the Bush administration
who were looking for an
opportunity to get within Iraq
and exercise regime change
from Saddam Hussein.
♪♪
♪♪
it's worth noting
that there is relatively
little discussed
about what happened after.
but we'll be here for a while.
It's going to be hard.
then what?
And the big question
about how are you
how are you going to rebuild it,
wasn't something that was much
discussed in Washington
in the run up to the war.
But it would come to bedevil us
for years to come.
-And would end up killing
thousands of American troops.
♪♪
all seem to be
going well for U.S. forces.
U.S. forces were in Baghdad,
Saddam Hussein's
government had melted.
[ Cheers and applause ]
there was a feeling that
the mission had been
accomplished.
-Major combat operations in Iraq
have ended.
the United States
and our allies have prevailed.
[ Cheers and applause ]
it was clear that we had
just finished the first chapter
of what was going
to be a very long book.
indistinct shouting ]
And the reality is the furthest
thing from mission accomplished.
-I got to the city of Baghdad
at the same time
the president said
the mission was accomplished.
stationed in one of the city's
most dangerous neighborhoods.
with no adequate vehicles,
we didn't have
enough water to go around.
and we had to scrap
for ammunition and body armor?
-But the troops were rushed
into the region
without adequate equipment
on the back of lies
told about weapons
of mass destruction.
-Our vehicles are not armored.
We're digging pieces
of rusted scrap metal
to put on our vehicles
to take into combat.
you go to war
with the army you have,
not the army you might want
or wish to have at a later time.
-The Bush administration
also claimed
they'd be greeted as liberators.
-Yeah.
[ Gunshots ]
-Now soldiers
like Paul Rieckhoff
found themselves occupiers
in an increasingly hostile land.
♪♪
-[ Shouting ]
[ Gunfire ]
-Only someone who's never
experienced war
thinks that it's quick
and easy and simple.
war is messy,
war is painful.
-The ones that are fighting
truly believe
just as we do.
we fought like the Indians.
The man will fight
with whatever he has at hand.
U.S. forces were
totally unprepared.
they were unprepared
in terms of equipment.
our soldiers
would drive around in Humvees,
in four wheel drive vehicles
that lacked
any meaningful protection
against small arms fire
or roadside bombs.
♪♪
the political elites
found sanctuary
in a fortified compound.
we were in the streets
bleeding and dying.
♪♪
we actually need
to send some people over
administer
and rebuild this country.
and it turned pretty quickly
to the large compound
right smack dab
in the center of Baghdad.
This place soon got a name.
the dangerous Iraq
this area inside
was called the Green Zone.
♪♪
-The Green Zone quickly became
a four square mile
piece of America
in the heart of Baghdad.
♪♪
you could get bacon
cheeseburgers
in Iraqi restaurants,
and you could get a drink.
I didn't know there was
going to be a steaks out here.
-My unit was on the other side
of the river
from the Green Zone.
So while these guys
were sleeping
in palatial palaces
we were facing hostility
and riots
and the manifestation of what
would become the insurgency.
♪♪
it became part of the problem
that... that elites
could insulate themselves
from the destruction
that they had wrought
and they could pursue
their... their silly ideas
that Iraq was going to quickly
turn into a miniature
version of America.
-People who thought we were
going to roll into Iraq
and make it look like New Jersey
were... were dangerously
disconnected and out of touch
with the reality.
but Iraq is a place
that motivated
hundreds of thousands
of mostly young men
to come and fight against us.
[ Gunshot ]
-And kill Americans.
♪♪
While U.S. soldiers
began to feel the brunt
corporations were raking
in profits by the billions.
-The great American
General Smedley Butler
and Iraq was definitely
a racket.
And the American troops
were not in on it.
The American troops
had to scrape and scrap
while companies like Halliburton
were getting no-bid contracts.
-Private companies made
an estimated $140 billion
securing lucrative contracts
reconstruction
and oil production.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
[ Explosion ]
-War shouldn't be about profit.
and it should be something
that we try to end
as quickly as possible.
It shouldn't be a bonanza
for scumbags to come in
and that's what we saw.
We saw scumbags
and grifters come in
and get rich off Iraq while we
lost our legs and our friends.
So that cuts to maybe
the most outrageous part
of America's involvement
in Iraq and Afghanistan
is that some people gave
everything and others got rich.
They want the war to go on
so they can make more money
and buy champagne.
That cuts to the core
of how unequal it was
and how dangerous it was
for our national security
to have the profit
motive introduced
on a level
we'd never seen before.
♪♪
-Major American combat
operations in Iraq
eventually wound down
in December 2011.
but the cost to Americans went
way beyond the dollars spent.
500 U.S.
service members
would be killed in action.
missing limbs,
wracked by
post-traumatic stress.
-We're really good
at sending people to war.
We're really good at paying
to send people to war.
We're really bad
at bringing people home
and taking care of them
once they get back.
Guys like Paul Wolfowitz
and Don Rumsfeld
you have.
and then you
come home to the VA you have.
which was a VA that didn't know
didn't know how to treat
didn't know about ear injuries
and the other kinds of wounds
we were facing.
And already we've lost
more people to suicide
than we've lost on the ground
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And we will lose many more
in the decades to come.
♪♪
-In the vacuum left by
the removal of Saddam's regime
extremism flourished and many
more lives would be lost.
you get ISIS after about 10
or 11 years of... of...
Of the crisis caused by
the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And ISIS is... is a real threat
to regional stability.
-The fight against ISIS
has claimed tens of thousands
but it has done something else.
Kept the business of war going.
supposedly,
the attempt to
make the world safe
but it produces insecurity.
And then that insecurity
justifies
more of the same military
intervention and spending.
♪♪
-Our government has spent
trillions of dollars
over the last two decades
fighting perceived enemies
across the globe.
But has it really made us safer?
I can take the mask off?
- Yes.
- Okay.
but really our attention.
preparing for
a global pandemic
but in terms of the time
and thinking
of senior policymakers.
♪♪
2020...
The first confirmed death
from COVID-19
is reported
in the United States.
one person
passed away overnight.
000 miles away,
highlighting a grim reality.
that war has raged on
while problems that threaten
the lives of Americans
back home have been ignored.
February 2020,
there was supposedly
a peace agreement signed.
But there's been no peace for
American soldiers for 19 years.
and there's no peace
in the region.
[ Gunfire ]
[ Indistinct shouting ]
-The original mission
of the Afghan war
was aimed at toppling
the Taliban government
so that the United States
and allied forces
specifically Osama bin Laden.
-And Afghanistan
has become the place
that Osama bin Laden
hoped it would become.
that would take our eye
off the ball.
And Afghanistan is in some ways
part of the reason
why we can't prepare adequately
for a pandemic.
think about how much
better prepared
we could have been
for the coronavirus.
♪♪
♪♪
preparing
for a global pandemic
but in terms of the time and
thinking of senior policymakers.
-But where is the PPE?
Where are the ventilators?
♪♪
-And it's a sad reflection
on this society
and yet nurses have had
to wear garbage bags
to protect themselves
from patients in hospitals.
♪♪
-The pandemic is hurting America
in ways that Osama bin Laden
and in my view,
is the greatest modern threat
to our national security
we've ever seen.
-But the pandemic isn't the
only threat to national security
that the ongoing war
in Afghanistan
has distracted us from.
-When you look at the
most significant attack
that has been perpetrated
against Americans
there was a cyber attack
in 2016.
hello.
of disinformation targeted
at American voters.
-We viewed Russia as a regional
power very famously.
that's what
President Obama called Russia,
much to Putin's chagrin.
We thought that Russia
is not a threat to us.
Russia's military
is not a threat to us.
there is there's no way
that Russia can undermine
the United States.
And we were too late
to recognize this threat.
for instance, the war on terror.
-We'll never know conclusively
whether those attacks
but it was the most
significant attack
directed against
the United States
and one that we continue to be
woefully unprepared to defend.
Twitter was
hacked by a 17-year-old.
We're lucky that that hacker
just used it
to get himself some Bitcoin
and not start a nuclear war.
♪♪
-I think that we've started
to realize
that not only can our government
not take care of us
but they can't even carry out
the basic necessity
of taking care
of our national security.
and those threats
are more than just bombs
or hijacked airplanes.
It's microscopic
virus particles.
It's potential cyber attacks.
they need to know
that they have security
when it comes to their health.
-We may get to the point
where more people are killed
by COVID in the United States
than were killed
in the second World War.
and I think that it's making it
obvious that this government
that has completely sold itself
on its ability
to protect us
has failed in every regard.
a shadow America that benefits
one group of people
at the expense
of the greater good.
All they need is for you
not to pay attention.
All they need
is for you not to know
where America's sons
and daughters are dying
or how much money they spend
on a weapons system
or where they're
deploying troops.
They hope
you don't pay attention
that's how this happens.
That's how billions
of dollars are spent.
That's how cities
are left vulnerable.
That's how pandemics spread.
-And so it's maybe a time
for us to rethink
about what makes us safe and
and what really endangers us.
-We kind of had a phrase
decades ago
in the prep industry called
72 hours to animal.
We don't believe that anymore.
We believe it's more like
72 seconds
or 72 minutes to animal.
Chaos is going to
break out within
the first hour or hours.
they take care of themselves.
you're absolutely on your own.
Government's number one priority
is taking care of themselves.
continuity of government,
taking care
of the elected officials.
-Back up!
♪♪