Posted by Rachel on: 03.16.2007 /
“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.”
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
For the first meeting of our monthly movie group, four of my friends and I watched the documentary Why We Fight. The film is inspired by President Eisenhower’s famous Farewell Address in which he warned Americans about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex.” Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a brutally honest look at the American war machine, using interviews with ordinary Americans and Iraqis, as well as commentary by military and Congressional insiders. Jarecki takes us to a munitions factory, a military trade show, and an Iraqi morgue.
We all agreed that it was an excellent documentary. According to Amy, “It leaves you furious!” And Aubrie commented that she learned many things that she had never heard reported in the mainstream news. Aubrie also noted how many times the word “supreme” was used to refer to America and asked, “Aren’t we who are Christians supposed to believe that God is the only supreme one?” Amy observed that when America was referred to as the “greatest nation on earth” that “greatest” always seemed to mean “the most powerful.”
We thought that an especially impactful part of the film was the deeply personal story of a father who lost his son on 9/11. The father now says that he eagerly supported the Iraq War out of a desire for revenge and that he now feels betrayed and exploited by his government. As Staci insightfully pointed out, the father’s story in many ways represents the story of the nation. We were all grieving after the 9/11 attacks. And as Staci said, anger is a normal part of the grieving process, but our leaders took advantage of that anger and grief to mislead us into war.
We were all struck by the parallels that were drawn in the film between Rome and America. One of the Iraqi citizens interviewed predicted that “because of her behavior” America will fall and another country will rise and take our place. As former CIA agent Chalmers Johnson reminds us, “It is nowhere written that the American empire goes on forever.”
It seems clear that we have not heeded the warnings of President Eisenhower.
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Comment by: Staci
1 03/16/07 4:25 PM | Comment Link |There are so many ideas in this film that we could discuss. One of the reasons “we fight” that the film included was that war feeds our country’s economy. And not just big business moguls. Several weaponry factories were featured and it looked like most of the line and management employees were women. Some talked about their conflicted feelings about their jobs, but I imagine these are family wage jobs with good benefits.
So I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this. (There is so much in this film to think about that you WILL wake up in the middle of the night, so might want to chose a time when you don’t have to be anywhere early the next morning.) Why does economic health have to come from a military-industrial complex? What prevents us from having another sort of industrial complex? If the government is going to subsidize jobs, if that is the reason for the increasing military-industrial complex, why don’t we subsidize a different industry? Why choose this one?
That started my “what would it look like if…” thinking. Like, what would it look like if we took half of the spending on the military-industrial complex and spent it on R&D and factories to create carbon-neutral vehicles using only sustainable resources? I’m sure we could sell that kind of technology around the world just like we do w/weapons. The decrease in pollution would decrease medical costs. Or what would it look like if we used 1/4 of the spending to fund new industry in the US and 1/4 to fund loans for small business around the world? You get the idea…
So how can we change the way we, as a nation, rely on the economic benefit of fighting/war? Is there a change that would promote economic health AND justice and compassion or do we have to live with the military-industrial complex for the sake of our economy?
Comment by: Rachel
2 03/17/07 8:30 AM | Comment Link |Staci for President!
Comment by: Rachel
3 03/18/07 1:43 PM | Comment Link |Another thing that really fascinated me from the documentary was when the former CIA agent talked about the concept of “blowback” - a term I had heard before to refer to attacks against the US but didn’t really understand. He said that blowback is not simply retaliation against the US for foreign operations. It is retaliation against the US for foreign operations that the American people never knew about in the first place, so when the retaliation occurs, the American people cannot put it into context.
He said that the last thing the government wants for us to ask after acts of terrorism is “WHY did they do that to us?” He said after 9/11, our government did NOT want us to ask, “Why do they hate us?” So they did everything they could to distract us and change the subject and say, “They hate our freedoms, they hate our way of life, we are good and they are evil, etc.”
Comment by: Aubrie
4 03/20/07 9:57 AM | Comment Link |So more than just us that watched and reviewed the movie should be commenting here!!! But I have to say that the part when they are showing congress man over and over “Thanking God” for our government contractors just got to me. These contractors are in each state and contributing to weapons or anything else used in the military and/or war. Why can’t they say “Thank God for each solider who has died.” Or for each group that has put together care boxes for our soliders so they have wet wipes to clean with since they have no showers. Or every company that is working towards less polution & being truly “green”. But no, thank God for those weapons that kill people. And by the way they don’t want the public to know any of this. Just like Rachel said, lets not tell anyone the real reason behind things. Not why we really fight and never tell why most of world hates us. The best part for me is the amazing lady who used to be the intelligence department says we fight because not enough of us are willing to stand up together and say something. Well, I’m standing up.
Comment by: amy
5 03/20/07 6:23 PM | Comment Link |so, what to say? frankly, i was all too aware of most of the material presented in this film. so, more than anything , it served as a grim reminder of emotions experienced all too often over the last several years. The fury at smug politicians, the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that i felt as i watched the still night in the city of baghdad light up in our display of “shock and awe”, the sympathy mixed with frustration at the grief and frequently misguided anger of “911 families”; i’ve felt all of this before. i find myself feeling heavy with the weight of it all and exhausted by the duration. for these reasons, i have struggled to find the inspiration to even comment on it at all. that said, the film does an excellent job of presenting the facts in a clear and effective manner. i particularly enjoyed the clips of president eisenhower and those of retired air force lt. col. karen kwiatkowski.for me it’s both sad and scary to hear a woman who once proudly served her country say, “if you join the military now, you won’t be defending the united states … [but] pursuing an imperialist agenda.” is this what our great nation has become, perpetuators of an ongoing cycle of violence? i apologize for the rather disjointed and rambling nature of this post, but i wanted to chime in and i’m afraid that with my current levels of frustration and discouragement this is about all i can muster.
Comment by: Rachel
6 03/20/07 9:46 PM | Comment Link |Amy, thank you for your honest and eloquent comments. I think you captured very well the feelings we all experienced watching this film.
Comment by: HereandNow
7 03/21/07 9:08 AM | Comment Link |I think that “Why we Fight” was wonderful and horrible. Wonderful because it opens the viewers eyes to the reality of the military industrial complex–horrible in that it doesn’t leave one with a sense that much can be done to slow/stop the forward encroachment on the rest of the globe by that military industrial complex. If any of you didn’t catch Terry Gross’ Fresh Air episode this last Monday, check it out via podcast. It was about Blackwater, a really terrifying arm of the military industrial complex defined as a privately held company that supplies mercenararies in support of the American agenda in Iraq and other places. Listening to it made me feel sick and dirty and in desparate need of a shower.
Comment by: Staci
8 03/21/07 11:33 AM | Comment Link |I really agree with you, Amy. This thing termed the military industrial complex is so overwhelmingly, oppressively gigantic. Where would we even start to confront it in a meaningful way? A good friend described even thinking about this as feeling like swimming in peanut butter. (This is nicer than my buried alive feeling.)
The film did a great job of showing the big picture of how pervasive “fighting” is in our country. On the other hand, since it didn’t have a focus on a specific element it left viewers feeling pretty impotent. I wish the film makers had the time and resources to turn this into a series where they would follow up with episodes focusing on the parts that make up the whole.