The United States used to impose war taxes, and these war taxes not only paid for the war,

but gave individuals a connection with the war to understand that these wars were going on and that

they, you couldn't do them on the cheap, that everyone sort of paid the cost for them, even

if you weren't sent to the front lines.

And so now we just borrow.

The sort of how we envision kind of a democratic society is that there should be debate about going

into war and expending American blood and treasure in the service of national security.

And if those debates aren't taking place, then the worry is that you can either get into conflicts

that might not be in the national

interests or that might continue much longer than the national interest would advise.

Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Modern War Institute podcast. I'm John Amble,

editorial director at MWI, and in this episode,

Major Jake Morali sits down for a conversation with Dr. Sarah Kreps. She is a professor of government

and adjunct professor of law at Cornell University, and she has conducted some important

and really impactful research on a range of topics relevant to the conduct of war today

and in the future. Her latest book is called Taxing Wars,

The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy.

In this episode, you'll hear her talk about how countries go to war

and how they pay for those wars.

But before we get to it, just a couple quick notes.

First, hopefully you're subscribed to the MWI podcast,

but if not, you can find it on Apple Podcasts,

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