When that agent came back, he had a reception in the White House and everybody toasted him.

Sounded great.

We got rid of a guy we didn't like, and we replaced him with someone, the Shah, who would do whatever we wanted.

So it's a perfect ending.

But only if history stops.

Unfortunately, history doesn't stop. It keeps on happening.

When you violently intervene in the affairs of another country, you're doing something like releasing a wheel at the top of the hill.

You can let it go, but you have no control over how it bounces or where it ends.

Iran is a perfect example of this.

What is the cost of war?

Now, if you listen to politicians talking on camera, or if you hear some of the conversations that happen in Washington, DC amongst the permanent Washington class of elite politicians,

and those in the media and the military industrial complex, very rarely do you ever hear them actually talk about.

Ask the question and try to answer what is the cost of war?

Somehow there is always a blank check coming from Congress, spending our American taxpayer dollars to go and wage new wars, a new Cold War, a nuclear arms race.

While they tell people back here at home, people who are struggling for clean water or for safe communities or securing our borders just saying,

sorry, there's not enough money.

You never hear them actually talk about and tell the American people what is the cost of war?

In the form of cost in human lives, the form of cost to American taxpayers, the form of cost to our economy and to our freedom.

Now, my guest today is somebody who asks this question very often.

He's a prolific author, foreign policy correspondent who's gone and traveled to over 50 countries in the world over five continents.

Stephen Kinzer is a fellow at Brown University and he's somebody who is very well versed on not only foreign policy, but the cost of war and the cost and consequences of the decisions that are made by the president, commander in chief, and by leaders in Congress.

And why we the American people should understand and appreciate this cost because we are the ones who pay the price.

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