American War Machine Pt.3: Enemies on Demand

What if the enemy was never who they said it was?

In this third installment of The American War Machine series, we unpacks how the United States systematically creates, recycles, and weaponizes enemies to keep the war machine running. From Cold War fear-mongering to post-9/11 Islamophobia, from the media's role in propaganda to the racial coding of domestic threats—this episode breaks down how fear is manufactured, sold, and monetized.

We talk about Saddam Hussein, the Mujahideen, "weapons of mass destruction," and how politicians and corporations profit while everyday people pay the price. We explore how racism plays a central role in war rhetoric, how the military budget starves communities, and why calling it out isn’t anti-American—it’s necessary.

Because when you stop believing the lie, the whole machine starts to fall apart.

• Brown University’s Costs of War Project – https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar

• Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Military Expenditure Database – https://sipri.org

• FBI Uniform Crime Reporting: Hate Crimes Statistics

• Washington Post / ABC News Poll (March 2003) – Public opinion on Saddam Hussein and 9/11

• U.S. Senate Committee on Banking Report (1994) – Exports of biological agents to Iraq

• National Security Archive – CIA support for Mujahideen (Operation Cyclone)

• C-SPAN Archives – Reagan, Bush Sr., Bush Jr., and Trump speeches

• FAIR.org: “WMDs and the Media” Report, 2003

• Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, 1961 – “Military-industrial complex”

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speech: “Beyond Vietnam” (April 4, 1967)

• NAACP Criminal Justice Fact Sheets

• Human Rights Watch: Civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

• Congressional Budget Office Reports on U.S. defense spending (2001–2024)

• Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent

• Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X speeches on propaganda and power

• New York Times: Judith Miller and WMD coverage retractions

• Pew Research Center: U.S. public opinion and media trust levels