Brown University’s Stephanie Savell joins Scott to discuss her project “Costs of War” as well as her research into policing of Brazilian slums. Savell explains why she thinks Americans have a strong detachment from discussing the war on terror and how military spending and support for the wars is the only consistent bipartisan agreement. Savell then breaks down the Pentagon’s $700 billion annual budget and explains how it goes pretty much everywhere but for troop preparation. Lastly she discusses the enormous reach of the American military and its near-unlimited counter-terrorism operations across the world. Check out her latest article for TomDispatch.com “The Wars No One Notices.”

Stephanie Savell is the co-director of the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute. Savell is an anthropologist who studies security, militarized policing, and civic engagement in Brazil and the U.S. She is the co-author of The Civic Imagination: Making a Difference in American Political Life.

Discussed on the show:

• “U.S. spending on post-9/11 wars to reach $5.6 trillion by 2018” (Brown University)
• The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict, by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Blimes
• “Fighting Terrorism With a Credit Card” (The Atlantic)
• “Nearly Half the Pentagon Budget Goes To Contractors,” by William D. Hartung (The American Conservative)
• “The Pentagon’s ‘Logistics Agency’ Lost Track of More Than $800 Million” (New York Magazine)
• “Obama: US spends more on military than next 8 nations combined” (PolitiFact)
• “2/2/18 Major Danny Sjursen on the Vietnam War’s legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan” (The Scott Horton Show)
• “U.S. Army Hones Antiterror Strategy for Africa, in Kansas” (New York Times)

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Zen Cash, The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; LibertyStickers.com; TheBumperSticker.com; and ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

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