Why We Fight, a Political Documentary

Questioning why we fight is natural and important during a time of war. If we can resist the urge towards knee jerk patriotism, we quickly find that the question reveals many layers of complexities. Indeed, perception of American foreign policy takes different forms: democracy and imperialism perpetually oppose each other on the broad landscape of our nation’s military involvement and our motivations for war. Eugene Jarecki’s documentary Why We Fight convincingly argues that it’s imperialism—not freedom and not democracy—that is winning out, and that it’s the survival of mankind, we can only assume, that is losing out. Deliberately freeing himself from intellectual chains of impassioned rhetoric or partisan talking points, Jarecki, neither inflammatory nor conciliatory, paints a picture of an American war machine powered by a systematic desire for global hegemony, and greased by political collusion, big business profits, media obedience, and exploited patriotism.

In 1961 a war-weary Eisenhower, in his farewell address to the nation, warned the American people of the unholy alliance between big business and big military, and the damage that this “military-industrial complex” can inflict on the crucial decisions of American policy makers and on the free and democratic process of public policy debate.

Jarecki’s documentary, simple in concept but broad in scope, patiently explores how the hulking military-industrial complex has entrenched itself ever deeper into American culture—and how the world must soon pay the price. Jarecki explains that a complex web of causality makes war a big money business itching for military expansion; he explains that rationales like “freedom” and “democracy” placate a nation in mourning, and divert a populous grasping for certitude; he explains that ignorance and obedience are both comforting and dangerous. The documentary follows the war-time money trail from military supply companies—the Kellogg, Brown and Roots, the Halliburtons, and the Boeings—that leech off the inflated war budget to turn tremendous profits (up over 25 percent since the war), to congressmen who exploit armament development for district job creation and votes, and finally to the United States government that establishes military bases around the world for oil and political influence.

The documentary powerfully maintains that the cost-benefit ratio of military invasion, of war, and of destruction is computed not based on human suffering or on death or on humanity, but based on political importance and economic gains. Once the decision is made, it’s the thinks tanks that engineer the war justifications and it's the media that advertises them. Indeed, our political polemic--what we know and what we do not know--is defined by those making the foreign policy, and truth is constructed based on political needs. Fundamentally, the lurking military-industrial complex will continue to snake itself throughout society until we cast down the shackles of emotional comfort and intellectual ignorance--and Mr. Jarecki wishes to begin the process.

The question becomes, so why do we fight? Well, we fight because the impoverished people of our nation need some direction in life, and the army is hiring. We fight because we’re scared, we’re hurt and we want to feel a little security, and the army has big guns and lots of American flags. And we fight because our leaders want to globalize our nation and line their pockets, and they just don’t give a damn about who lives and who dies.

We fight because, “not enough people are standing up saying, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’”

Sobering truths. Bravo Mr. Jarecki.