Graduation Speech: The Cost Of War

You're not going to get drafted into the military you have to pick up a gun and head to Libya Syria Iraq Afghanistan or any of those other places where our military is engaged. So it's easy to put the military industrial complex out of our minds. But while George W. Bush has got away the American workers big most certainly hasn't from drone warfare to N.S.A. snooping. What Washington does in its war on terror affects you. But what does it cost you. Because ultimately you're paying for it. It's our subject tonight. The cost of war. And this is the business of life. I'm Michel Martin and welcome to the business of life. Ask yourself a question how much is the safety of our country cost and the trillions of dollars spent waging a war on terror actually

And my distinguished panel of guests are going to help me achieve this goal. So what are the costs and benefits of the American military to our soldiers into ourselves. As always we're going to break down the issue using facts figures dollars and cents. I'm joined by a panel of brilliant experts uniquely qualified to answer this question What is the cost of war. Spencer Ackerman is the U.S. national security under the Guardian where on his first day of employment he was tasked with informing the government and Horizon that his new employer was in possession of material supplied by Edward Snowden. While he is a writer activist and executive director and co-founder of the Service Women's Action Network. She's a former captain and company commander of the U.S. Marine Corps and Sebastian Younger is an award winning journalist the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and director one of the greatest documentaries in war I have ever seen restraint. You should all see it. So let's begin with our first topic. The military industrial complex and let's bring up our first number one to one that's the approximate ratio of contractors to U.S. service members in Iraq and