Jon Stewart Pushes Gen. Petraeus on ‘Undefeated’ Military-Industrial Complex: ‘Lost 20 Years in Afghanistan’ and the ‘Pentagon Got a Raise’

Jon Stewart grilled former U.S. Army General and CIA Director David Petraeus on the “undefeated” military-industrial complex and whether U.S. foreign policy is actually changing when the Pentagon received a “raise” after the results of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter war effort Petraeus ran for a time.

On The Problem with Jon Stewart, Petraeus claimed the decades spent in Afghanistan and Iraq “tempered enthusiasm” among the population for similar military actions and nation building. Stewart pushed back arguing the U.S. is not taking its foot off the gas pedal when the Pentagon budget continues to increase.

“It looks to me like we lost 20 years in Afghanistan, 20 years in Iraq, and the Pentagon got a raise. They got 50 billion more dollars than they even asked for,” Stewart said. “There’s no oversight —”

“That’s not because of Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s because of a return of great power rivalries and the need to transform the force,” Petraeus said.

Stewart declared the so-called “military-industrial Complex” an “undefeated combatant” while Petraeus continued to talk up pressing threats to the U.S., including China.

“It’s just hard to see the evidence of a learning curve manifest. It still feels like our foreign policy is everything everywhere all at once,” Stewart said.

Petraeus argued that in many cases if the U.S. doesn’t act, then someone else will. He even argued Afghanistan could still be “managed” today by the U.S., suggesting the state of the country may be better.

“These aren’t chess pieces to be moved around,” Stewart said.

The comedian cited his work pushing for benefits for combat veterans exposed to burn pits while overseas. The toxic exposure has left some terminally ill, and Stewart exclaimed the difficulties in supporting our own soldiers. Making matters worse, he informed Petraeus, is the fact that these burn pits remain a consequence not just for soldiers, but for the people now stuck with them.

“Those countries will bear the scars of those burn pits. The chemicals of those burn pits, it’s in the soil, it’s in the air, it’s in their genes, it’s in their people,” Stewart said. “We don’t ever reckon with the true reality of our intellectualized exercises in stability and democracy with the people on the ground.”

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