Below is a transcript segment from Radio Free’s interview with EMN Associate Director Matthew Hoh as part of the Peace Dividend Project.

“The inertia of trillions of dollars of a massive leviathan of bases, troops, aircrafts, ships, money around the world…has its own life force.

It’s a living organism.

I always think back to Steinbeck and the Grapes of Wrath and this idea that…banks have to grow or else they die. It’s a principle that I think a lot of people understand in terms of organizational management and organizational culture…

The amount of money that the defense industry, the weapons industry, the military complex is going to get this next year is about $1.3 trillion, all told.

Year after year, that is a wave that just operates on its own.”

Listen to the full interview here.