What if the wars we fight aren't about safety, but about an incentive structure designed to keep the defense budget growing? Connor Echols, managing editor at Responsible Statecraft and the Quincy Institute, joins Kevin and John to pull back the curtain on the military industrial complex. We discuss how foreign governments and defense contractors fund the think tanks that shape Washington policy, the true cost of the current conflict with Iran, and why the system is rigged to prefer forever wars over diplomatic solutions.

Connect with Connor Echols and the Quincy Institute:

Official Site: https://quincyinst.org/

Responsible Statecraft: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/

Follow Connor on X: https://x.com/connor_echols

Chapter Timestamps

00:00 – Howard Zinn and the problem of obedience
00:26 – Welcome to the Revolution: Meet Kevin and John
03:01 – The $80 billion price tag: Breaking down the Iran conflict
04:46 – Gas prices and the $8 per gallon reality in California
06:20 – Introducing Connor Echols: Tracking the defense cartels
07:16 – Defining the military industrial complex: The war lobby explained
08:52 – Primacy and the ideology of dominant American power
10:14 – From Jordan to DC: Connor’s journey into foreign policy
13:12 – View from the Middle East: How the world actually sees the US
14:50 – The Quincy Institute: Uniting progressives and libertarians against war
17:39 – Trans-partizan politics: Working with everyone from Gaetz to Omar
19:52 – Dismantling the Blob: How to change the foreign policy bench
24:40 – The Think Tank Funding Tracker: Following the weapons contractor money
31:44 – Track two diplomacy: How think tanks shape the media narrative
35:48 – Strange bedfellows: Why Soros and Koch both fund the Quincy Institute
41:45 – The road to Iran: Miscalculations and the balance of power
45:55 – The Strait of Hormuz and the threat to the global economy
52:41 – Is a deal possible? The reality of nuclear enrichment and sanctions
58:26 – The myth of the pro-American revolution in Iran
01:03:30 – Who caves first? Authoritarian resilience vs. democratic pressure
01:06:25 – Coming up next week: Extremism and QAnon with Matthew Hannah

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