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Chris Murphy

US senator: 'War industry' quiets Dems on Iran

Chris Murphy: ‘There's a lot of people who make money off of war’

Reporting | QiOSK

A top Democratic senator on Tuesday had a blunt assessment of why members of his party are out of step with rank-and-file American Democrats across the country on issues of foreign policy, specifically President Trump’s illegal attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday.

During an interview with Sen. Chris Murphy, MSNBC host Chris Hayes pointed to a new poll finding that 56% of Americans disapproved of the airstrikes and that the partisan breakdown showed a whopping 87% of Democrats opposing the attack.

“I gotta say, if you just looked at elected Democratic members of Congress I don’t think you would think the voting members of the party were as overwhelmingly against this strike as they are compared to the people they send to go represent them in Congress,” Hayes told Murphy, asking, “Do you feel like there's a pretty big distance on these kinds of issues, between Democratic voters and democratic electeds?”

“I mean yes,” Murphy quickly responded. “That's because, listen, there is a war industry in this town. There just is. There's a lot of people who make money off of war. The military, I love them, they're capable. But they are always way overly optimistic about what they can do.”

Murphy added that the problem infects both parties, but Americans understand that U.S. military intervention, from Vietnam and Iraq to Afghanistan and Yemen, doesn’t work.

“So the American people get it,” Murphy said. “This town, you know, has, like I said, a degree of optimism and hubris about military action that is derivative of the fact that the war industry spends a lot of money here in Washington telling us that the guns and the tanks and the planes can solve all of our problems.” Watch:


Top image credit: Maxim Elramsisy / Shutterstock.com
Reporting | QiOSK
Kurdistan drone attacks
Top photo credit: A security official stands near site of the Sarsang oilfield operated by HKN Energy, after a drone attack, in Duhok province, Iraq, July 17, 2025. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

Kurdistan oil is the Bermuda Triangle of international politics

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In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that a strong Kurdistan Region within a federal Iraq is a "fundamental and strategic component" of U.S. policy. Two months later, that policy was set on fire.

A relentless campaign of drone attacks targeting Iraqi Kurdistan’s military, civilian, and energy infrastructure escalated dramatically in July, as a swarm of Iranian-made drones struck oil fields operated by American and Norwegian companies. Previous strikes had focused on targets like Erbil International Airport and the headquarters of the Peshmerga’s 70th Force in Sulaymaniyah.

The attacks slashed regional oil production from a pre-attack level of nearly 280,000 barrels per day to a mere 80,000.

The arrival of Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji in Erbil personified the central paradox of the crisis. His mission was to lead an investigation into an attack that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials had already publicly blamed on armed groups embedded within the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF)—components of his own government.

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In a dramatic move last week, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the selection of its own prime minister and presidential council to compete with and directly challenge the legitimacy of the Sudanese government.

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The headlines are increasingly dire.

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