Podbit · Up First from NPR
$8 trillion added to the national debt, immeasurable suffering, destroyed nations — and for what? Platner says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan enriched defense contractors and gave politicians a nationalistic shield for bad domestic policy. The people who paid were the infantry and foreign civilians.
Where this was said
At 36:55 · chapter starts 36:25
Fadel asks what Platner would be doing in the Senate right now if he were there. His answer is immediate: blocking every dollar of funding for the Iran war. He'd work with Chris Van Hollen and other Democratic opponents, and with Republicans like Rand Paul who share anti-interventionist views. His broader framing of American military force is sweeping and deeply personal: the U.S. military's purpose should be defending the country and the interests of the American people — not enriching defense contractors or giving politicians a nationalism-wrapped shield for bad domestic policy. He looks back at Iraq and Afghanistan and sees the same pattern: $8 trillion, immense suffering, destroyed nations, and the main beneficiaries were not the infantry. The people who got rich weren't the ones doing the dying. He is equally clear that the Iran war fits this template exactly — and that the possible peace deal may simply restore the pre-war status quo at the cost of $50 billion and 13 American lives.
Platner estimates the U.S. spent roughly $8 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling it money wasted for nothing.
Kierkegaard lost five of six siblings and his mother before adulthood, grew up under a shame-ridden father, fell in love, proposed, then mailed back the ring and fled to Berlin. His inability to live up to his own most important commitment became the engine of his entire philosophical project.
Casanova escaped from Venice's inquisition prison, met Voltaire, Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin, and Mozart — then died completely alone in a Slovak castle, broke, telling stories to children who thought he was a crazy old man. His 2,000-page memoir sat unread for decades. A life full of fireworks that meant nothing.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
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