Why We Fight

Eugene Jarecki
Sony Pictures (2006)
Reviewed by Anthony J. Nocella, II
SUNY Cortland

 Why We Fight, produced by Eugene Jarecki, is a brilliant critical film about how the military industrial complex has been developed and promoted post-9/11. It includes clips of the Iraq War, speeches by former President Bush, and amazing interviews with top scholars and experts, from former CIA agents to members of the Department of Defense such as Gore Vidal, Chalmers Johnson, Joseph Cirincione, Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, Wilton Sekzer, Sen. John McCain, James Roche, and Gwynne Dyer, examining the strategy on what Bush, Cheney and Co started in the early 1990s and carried out post 9/11 in “A One-Superpower World.” This global domination by the U.S. is similar to that of Rome and Great Britain, but with greater bloodshed and more covert wars, as direct domination, which Great Britain carried out, would not be possible.

The documentary breaks down the police state, questions if the U.S. is becoming an imperialist state, and depicts the development of bombs and how they are used on “targets.” Its approach is investigative, evenhanded and not anti-Bush. The foundational statement that makes this video so powerful is Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Farewell Address” in which he stated:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Why We Fight addresses how the U.S. propaganda machine influences the production of military weapons by such companies as Lockheed Martin, whose slogan is, “We never forget who we’re working for.” Because Lockheed Martin technically does not kill anyone, they do not take accountability. With the U.S. government doing the killing, their hands are clean, with their pockets green. Not only are contracts given to companies, but as this video shows, they are given out strategically. Vice-President Dick Cheney is a former CEO of Halliburton, a subsidiary of Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR). As the video notes, “We elected a government contractor as Vice-President.”

The film, having won numerous awards such as the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, aids social justice by showing the tie between government, corporate interest, and the military, and how they profit and establish the military industrial complex at the expense of those who are tortured or murdered. It shows how war is a means for many corporations from Coca Cola to McDonalds to set up shop. It dissects the demand for oil and oil as a cause of war. Further, it addresses the power of think-tanks, which is often an intellectual front group for corporate interests. These, with the aid of U.S. government, are what developed and shaped the talking points of how Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and Al Qaeda are connected, which aside from Saddam Hussein once being the president of Iraq, is really not at all. As this film shows, the truth was manipulated and spun for the purpose of going to war. Who with, the U.S. did not care. It just needed to be at war and cause mass destruction, which allows profit for weapon making companies such as Lockheed Martin.

Why We Fight closes with first hand experiences and film clips of people being killed in Iraq by U.S. bombs. It states that, “During the first 6 months of the Iraq war, 50 precision airstrikes were conducted against Iraqi leadership. Of these strikes, none hit its intended target.” So what did they hit? The answer is innocent people.  As a teacher for students between 10 to 16 years old and as a professor, due to its lengthy interviews I would suggest this video for those that are in either eleventh or twelfth grade or college and beyond.

To find out more, go to http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/.