"One Team - The Army / Defense / Industry" aka the Military Industrial Complex that Pres. Eisenhower warned against, whose only goal is to create multi-generational global misery for profit.

By 1970 there were over 1600 CFR members and in 1972 the Trilateral Commission was formed by Rockefeller (Chairman of the CFR). The CFR and the Trilateral Commission are not US Government created entities. The Council's first recruitment of a future president occurred in 1950 with Eisenhower. Since then every president (except Reagan) has been a CFR/Trilateral commission member and these presidents have filled their staff with other CFR members.

One example of how a presidential elect that claims he doesn't want NWO personnel in his administration, however ends up appointing such people to their cabinet is Reagan.

He was neither a CFR or Trilateral Commission member. He was neither a Skull & Bonesman or Bilderberger, however he was a Bohemian Grovesman.

When Reagan was asked who really ran the United States, Reagan admitted: "I think there is an elite in this country and they are the ones who run an elitist government (shadow government). They want a government by a handful of people because they don't believe the people themselves can run their lives... Are we going to have an elitist government that makes decisions for people's lives or are we going to believe as we have for so many decades, that the people can make these decisions for themselves?".

It also seems that Reagan was thinking along similar lines to Jimmy Carter when he gave his pre-election promise to avoid "insiders" when selecting his cabinet. When Reagan was elected, he formed a transitional team that would act as kind of a recruitment agency for the major positions in the new administration. Of the 59 people Reagan appointed for the team, 29 were members of the CFR, ten were Bilderbergers, and astonishingly, ten were from the dreaded Trilateral Commission. With George H.W. Bush as his Vice Presidential running mate, Reagan was not about to make the CFR or the Trilateral Commission or any other secret group into a campaign issue.

When Reagan entered the White House, he appointed 12 members of the Trilateral Commission, six of whom were also CFR members. As a sign of the true state of secret group influence, there were another 64 appointees who were also members of the CFR.

This from a man that stated he would take control and keep the government from being controlled by a shadow government. He appointed the exact people he vowed not to have in his office.

Today in the Bush administration, every single appointee is a CFR member. The CFR prohibits its members from disclosing anything that has been said within it's closed meetings to outsiders. A recent breakdown of the 4200+ members today reveals that 31% come from the corporate sector, 25% come from academia, 15% from charities, 13% from government, 8% from law, 6% from the media and 2% from other professions. CFR members are on the boards of the following sample of corporations: Citicorp, J.P.Morgan Chase, Boeing, Conoco, Disney, IBM, Exxon Mobil, Dow Jones, Viacom/CBS, Time Warner, Carlyle Group, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston, Chevron Texaco, Lockheed Martin, Hailliburton, Washington Post/Newsweek.

The CFR has been the breeding grounds for future presidents and their administrations for several decades now. Whether Republican or Democrat, the men and women in power will have been schooled in foreign relations by the council. If there is a shadow government at work then you can guarantee the puppet strings pass through the Pratt House (CFR).

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If you want to read up on the CFR (and not from the CFR itself), one good source of an examination of the CFR from it's initial creation up to today is a book written by 2 authors.

One is Thom Burnett (One of Britain's leading experts on security and military affairs. He served with UK Special Forces in the 90's and has been undertaking postgraduate research in Conspiracy Theory and Military Intelligence. The other author is Alex Games - Author and journalist for the London Evening Standard, UK's Financial Times, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Independent on Sunday).

The book is called: "Who Really Runs the World?: The war between globalization and democracy". Pages 100-120 descibe many details about the CFR's history from inception to today.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'dwight, eisenhower, president, campaign, ad' to 'dwight, eisenhower, president, campaign, ad, 50s' - edited by swampgirl

You read a vote for the post as a vote for any candidate mentioned in it?

I wouldn't. I vote for what's interesting, more often it's the issues being discussed rather than the candidates involved. Personally I'd love to see a "none of the above" option which forced a new election with NONE of the names we've already heard from involved.

Paul is better than some options but hardly ideal for me, too isolationist for my tastes for one. I like that he talks about the drug war and Constitution though as well as conservative history. Don't forget it was former commander of allied forces in WWII and at the time current Republican President Eisenhower who coined the term "military/industrial complex", not some libs. We like to forget that these days though. To me when the so called conservatives decided everyone not in lockstep with current thinking was the enemy they sealed their own doom. Shut out too many who used to think they were one.

Until "none of the above" runs we'll have to go for people just talking about interesting subjects and see if we can at least find less damaging leaders than we've had in the past. Ideal isn't running.

Wikipedia:
Just before filming began on the show, Lucy became pregnant with her and Desi's first child, Lucie Arnaz. They actually filmed the original pilot while Lucy was "showing", but did not include this in the episode.

Later during the second season, Lucy was pregnant again, with second child Desi Arnaz, Jr. This time, they incorporated her pregnancy into the storyline. Despite popular belief, Lucy's pregnancy was not TV's first on-screen pregnancy. That distinction belongs to Mary Kay on the late 1940s sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny.

In this era, saying the words "pregnant" or "pregnancy" on the air was prohibited, so they always described Lucy as "expecting" (or "'spectin'" in Ricky's case). When Lucy finds out she is pregnant, she announces to Ethel: "I am going to have a baby!" The episode "Lucy Is Enceinte" aired on December 8, 1952 ("enceinte" being French for "expecting" or "pregnant"). The episode "Lucy Goes To The Hospital" first aired on January 19, 1953, the same day Lucille Ball gave birth to Desi, Jr., and was watched by more people than any other TV program at that time--a considerable feat, given that Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated President of the United States the very same day. 68% of all American television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy when the time arrived for her to give birth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Lucy

luckily it was submitted to the Army, Navy And The Air Force, and not liberalsift (http://history.videosift.com/)

I can't speak for the man, but I'd bet the re-animated, actor-portrayed, over-dubbed Gen. Eisenhower would have a very different opinion about the dire necessity of the occupation of Iraq than the re-animated, actor-portrayed, over-dubbed Gen. Patton. (http://www.videosift.com/video/Why-We-Fight-BBC-Storyville-US-War-machine-documentary)

sheesh guys, the tinfoil hats won't help you if you keep licking toads

are these powers *new*?? truly? have you checked? nope, guess you haven't...

the first of these types of acts was in 1947, by the truman administration (national security act)

they can all be generalized as 'continuity of operations' plans... and most presidential administrations since eisenhower have updated and revised them -- carter, reagan, h.w. bush, clinton, and now g.w. bush

why do they need to update and/or revise the plans??

well, things change in a technological, organizational, as well as global political context, e.g. cold war (beginning and end), fema, the internet, 9-11, terrorism, homeland security, and rogue states

many of you seem determined to drum up this ballyhoo and shit your knickers over the supposed implications... but at least check the background and know the facts -- THIS IS NOTHING NEW

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuity_of_Operations_Plan

With this last bit of advice par, one could be compelled to, to assume or otherwise infer, that there are no others on the list of those, "out to hoodwink and deceive you -- to trick you into accepting a false conclusion that will drastically affect some of the most important aspects of your life" ...just those who propose that the official story reeks something awful-

Some individuals, most, are predictable, and easily led....conditioning-programming
very effective methods and means have been implemented to get us all, jumping through the unnatural hoops we do as humans today.

The very idea, that there are those capable of "pulling" it off, to some, instantly sends up the flags.....Insane.....preposterous......impossible.........crazy........think of some more expressive semantics to describe a predictable, human response to a dramatic set of stimuli.....

Gets some folks riled, simply to imagine there are those capable of believing in something like, taking control of an entire Nation.....Eisenhower was one of these fellows, who knew it could be done, and saw it happening, while standing on the tracks, train rushing at him......he jumped off at the last minute......

9/11 is an open case my fellow meatbots......keep it open, cause we have been, and are being hosed....

yeah-black/white duality does not apply here....the simple answer to the day's events, will most likely, never be made-

The denial dynamic works both ways...If tomorrow, we were all told the absolute truth , there would STILL be those, who would deny that......

fuck all, talk to a structural demolitions person, some pilots, some eyewitnesses, some folks in the building that day, cause that's about as close as you can get to a real answer, without calling the guys who did it....and being able to speak the language of the damned-

Eisenhower warned of this...

The music was pretty dismal!

I think this version is rubbish. This one is much better quality.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Eisenhowers-Farewell-Address-to-the-American-People

If anyone is interested there is a great book called "America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier" by Robert Vitalis - recently published by Stanford University Press.

"America’s Kingdom debunks the many myths that now surround the United States’s “special relationship” with Saudi Arabia, or what is less reverently known as "the deal": oil for security. Taking aim at the long-held belief that the Arabian American Oil Company, ARAMCO, made miracles happen in the desert, Robert Vitalis shows that nothing could be further from the truth. What is true is that oil led the U.S. government to follow the company to the kingdom. Eisenhower agreed to train Ibn Sa’ud’s army, Kennedy sent jets to defend the kingdom, and Lyndon Johnson sold it missiles. Oil and ARAMCO quickly became America’s largest single overseas private enterprise.

Beginning with the establishment of a Jim Crow system in the Dhahran oil camps in the 1930s, the book goes on to examine the period of unrest in the 1950s and 1960s when workers challenged the racial hierarchy of the ARAMCO camps while a small cadre of progressive Saudis challenged the hierarchy of the international oil market. The defeat of these groups led to the consolidation of America’s Kingdom under the House of Fahd, the royal faction that still rules today.

This is a gripping story that covers more than seventy years, three continents, and an engrossing cast of characters. Informed by first hand accounts from ARAMCO employees and top U.S. government officials, this book offers the true story of the events on the Saudi oil fields. After America’s Kingdom, mythmakers will have to work harder on their tales about ARAMCO being magical, honorable, selfless, and enlightened."


The book is really very good and it offers a detailed survey of the origins of American imperialism in the Middle East. The book also challenges the prevailing idea that Wahhabi ideology alone is responsible for the wide-spread dislike of Americans in Saudi Arabia. Instead, the book identifies the racial discrimination which Saudis experienced in the Dhahran oil fields - including forced segregation - as a major factor in explaining Saudi attitudes towards Americans and other foreigners.

1949

* Harry Truman is inaugurated as US president after being elected in 1948 to his own term; previously he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
* Doris Day enters the public spotlight with the films My Dream Is Yours and It's a Great Feeling as well as popular songs like "It's Magic"; divorces her second husband.
* Red China as the Communist Party of China wins the Chinese Civil War, establishing the People's Republic of China.
* Johnnie Ray signs his first recording contract with Okeh Records, although he won't become popular for another two years.
* South Pacific, the prize winning musical, opens on Broadway on April 7.
* Walter Winchell is an aggressive radio and newspaper journalist credited with inventing the gossip column.
* Joe DiMaggio is injured early in the season but makes a comeback in June and leads the New York Yankees to win the World Series.

1950

* Joe McCarthy, the US Senator, gains national attention and begins his anti-communist crusade with his Lincoln Day speech.
* Richard Nixon is first elected to the United States Senate.
* Studebaker a popular car company, is beginning its financial downfall.
* Television is becoming widespread (in black and white format) and becomes the most popular means of advertising.
* North Korea, South Korea engage in warfare as North Korea attacks on June 25, beginning the Korean War.
* Marilyn Monroe soars in popularity with five new movies including The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve, and attempts suicide after death of lover Johnny Hyde. Monroe would later (1954) briefly marry Joe DiMaggio (the rhyme in the previous verse).

1951

* Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29 for espionage.
* H-Bomb is in the middle of its development as a nuclear weapon, announced in early 1950 and first tested in late 1952.
* Sugar Ray (Robinson) the boxer obtains the world's Middleweight title.
* Panmunjeom, the border village in Korea, is the location of truce talks between the parties of the Korean War.
* Brando (Marlon) is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the first time for his famous role in A Streetcar Named Desire
* The King and I opens on Broadway on March 29.
* and The Catcher in the Rye is a controversial novel by J. D. Salinger.

1952

* Eisenhower (Dwight D.) is first elected as U.S. president by a landslide.
* Vaccine for polio is privately tested by Jonas Salk.
* England's got a new Queen as George VI passes away and Elizabeth II succeeds to the throne of United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms.
* Marciano (Rocky) defeats Jersey Joe Walcott, becoming the world Heavyweight champion.
* Liberace has a popular 1950s television show for his musical entertainment.
* Santayana, good-bye as philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist George Santayana dies on September 26.

1953

* Joseph Stalin dies on March 5, yielding his position as leader of the Soviet Union.
* Malenkov (Georgy Maksimilianovich) succeeds Stalin for six months following his death.
* Nasser (Gamal Abdel) acts as the true power behind the new Egyptian nation as Muhammad Naguib's minister of the interior.
* and Prokofiev (Sergei) the composer, dies on March 5, the same day as Stalin.
* Rockefeller (Winthrop) moves to Arkansas, the state where he will be elected governor.
* Campanella (Roy), a baseball catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, receives the National League's Most Valuable Player award for the second time.
* Communist bloc is a group of communist nations dominated by the Soviet Union at this time.

1954

* Roy Cohn resigns as Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel and enters private practice with the fall of McCarthy.
* Juan Perón spends his last full year as President of Argentina before a September 1955 coup.
* Toscanini (Arturo) is at the height of his fame as a conductor, performing regularly with the NBC Symphony Orchestra on national radio.
* Dacron is an early artificial fiber made from the same plastic as polyester.
* Dien Bien Phu falls as Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap take over the Vietnamese village, leading to the creation of North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
* "Rock Around the Clock" is a hit single released by Bill Haley & His Comets in May, spurring worldwide interest in rock and roll.

1955

* Einstein (Albert) dies on April 18 at the age of 76.
* James Dean achieves success with East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause, gets nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, and dies in a car accident on September 30.
* Brooklyn's got a winning team as the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series for the only time. (There is cheering in the background of the song during this line.)
* Davy Crockett is a Disney television series about the legendary frontiersman of the same name.
* Peter Pan is broadcast on TV live and in color from the 1954 version of the stage musical starring Mary Martin on March 7.
* Elvis Presley signs with RCA Records on November 21, beginning his pop career.
* Disneyland opens on July 17 as Walt Disney's first theme park.

1956

* Bardot (Brigitte) appears in her first mainstream film And God Created Woman and establishes an international reputation as a French "sex kitten".
* Budapest is the site of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
* Alabama is the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
* Khrushchev (Nikita) makes his famous Secret Speech denouncing Stalin's "cult of personality" on February 23.
* Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) releases her last film High Society and marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
* Peyton Place, the best-selling novel by Grace Metalious, is published.
* Trouble in the Suez boils as Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal on October 29, beginning the Suez Crisis.

1957

* Little Rock is the site of an anti-integration standoff as Governor Orval Faubus stops the Little Rock Nine from attending Little Rock Central High School, and President Eisenhower deploys the 101st Airborne Division to counteract him.
* Pasternak (Boris), the Russian author, publishes his famous novel Doctor Zhivago.
* Mickey Mantle is in the middle of his career as a famous New York Yankees' outfielder and American League All-Star for the sixth year in a row.
* Kerouac (Jack) publishes his first novel in seven years, On the Road.
* Sputnik is the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviet Union on October 4.
* Chou Enlai is in the middle of his reign as Premier of the People's Republic of China.
* Bridge on the River Kwai is released as a film adaptation of the 1954 novel and receives seven Academy Awards.

1958

* Lebanon is engulfed in a political and religious crisis.
* Charles de Gaulle is elected first president of the French Fifth Republic following the Algerian Crisis.
* California baseball begins as the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants move to California and become the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. They are the first major league teams west of Kansas City.
* Starkweather homicide captures the attention of Americans as serial killer Charles Starkweather kills eleven people before he is caught in a massive manhunt in Douglas, Wyoming.
* Children of thalidomide are born with birth defects caused by the sleeping aid and antiemetic, used to treat morning sickness as well (although not in the USA).

1959

* Buddy Holly dies in a plane crash on February 3 with Ritchie Valens and J. P. Richardson, "The Big Bopper". (As an intro to this stanza, Billy Joel mimics Buddy Holly's trademark "hiccup" style, singing a-UH-uh-oh...).
* Ben-Hur wins eleven Academy Awards as a film based around the New Testament starring Charlton Heston.
* Space monkeys Able and Miss Baker are the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18.
* Mafia are the centre of attention for the FBI and public attention builds to this organized crime society with an historically Sicilian/American origin.
* Hula hoops reach 100 million in sales as the latest toy fad.
* Castro (Fidel) comes to power after a revolution in Cuba and visits the United States later that year on an unofficial twelve-day tour.
* Edsel is a no-go as production of this car marketing disaster (Ford spent $400 million developing it) ends after only two years.

1960

* U-2: an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union, causing the U-2 Crisis of 1960.
* Syngman Rhee: was rescued by the CIA after being forced to resign as leader of South Korea for allegedly fixing an election and embezzling more than twenty million U.S. dollars.
* Payola: was publicized due to Dick Clark's testimony before Congress and Alan Freed's public disgrace.
* and Kennedy (John F.): beats Richard Nixon in the November 8 general election amongst allegations of vote fraud.
* Chubby Checker: popularizes the dance The Twist with his song of the same name.
* Psycho: an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, based on a pulp novel by Robert Bloch and adapted by Joseph Stefano, which becomes a landmark in graphic violence and cinema sensationalism. The screeching violins heard briefly in the background are a trademark of the film's soundtrack.
* Belgians in the Congo: The Democratic Republic of the Congo was declared independent of Belgium on June 30, with Joseph Kasavubu as President and Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister.

1961

* Hemingway (Ernest): commits suicide on July 2 after a long battle with depression.
* Eichmann (Adolf): is captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and tried for crimes against humanity.
* Stranger in a Strange Land: written by Robert A. Heinlein, is a breakthrough best-seller with themes of sexual freedom and liberation.
* Dylan (Bob): after a New York Times review by critic Robert Shelton, Dylan is signed to Columbia Records.
* Berlin: The Berlin Wall, which separates West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany, is constructed.
* Bay of Pigs Invasion: failed attempt by United States-trained Cuban exiles to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro.

1962

* Lawrence of Arabia: the Academy Award-winning film based on the life of T. E. Lawrence starring Peter O'Toole premiers in America on December 16.
* British Beatlemania: The Beatles gain Ringo Starr as drummer and Brian Epstein as manager, and join the EMI's Parlophone label.
* Ole Miss: James Meredith integrates the University of Mississippi.
* John Glenn: flew the first American manned orbital mission termed "Friendship 7" on February 20.
* Liston beats Patterson: Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the world heavyweight championship on September 25, ending in a round-one knockout.

1963

* Pope Paul (VI): is elected to the papacy.
* Malcolm X: makes infamous statements about agreeing with the Kennedy assassination, thus causing the Nation of Islam to censure him.
* British Politician Sex: the Profumo Affair.
* JFK blown away, what else do I have to say?: President Kennedy is assassinated on November 22.

1965

* Birth control: in the early 1960s, oral contraceptives, popularly known as "the pill", first go on the market and are extremely popular. Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 challenged a Connecticut law prohibiting contraceptives. In 1968, Pope Paul VI released a papal encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae which declared most birth control a sin.
* Ho Chi Minh: a Vietnamese Communist, who served as President of Vietnam from 1954–1969.

1968

* Richard Nixon back again: Nixon is elected in the 1968 presidential election of the United States.

1969

* Moon shot: refers to the Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing.
* Woodstock: famous rock and roll festival of 1969 that came to represent the epitome of the counterculture movement.

1974

* Watergate: political scandal involving a hotel break-in, eventually leading to President Nixon's resignation in 1974.
* Punk rock: the Sex Pistols and their new sound become popular.

1977 (Note that these two items, while later chronologically than the two 1976 items, come immediately before them in the song)

* Begin (Menachem): becomes Prime Minister of Israel in 1977 and negotiates the Camp David Accords with Egypt's president in 1978.
* Reagan (Ronald): President of the United States from 1981 to 1989; attempted to run for president in 1976

1976 (Note that these two items, while earlier chronologically than the two 1977 items, come immediately after them in the song)

* Palestine: the Palestine Liberation Organization is admitted as a member of Arab League; see history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
* Terror on the airline: Numerous aircraft hijackings took place, specifically, the Palestinian hijack of Air France Flight 139 and the subsequent rescue at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, 1976.

1979

* Ayatollahs in Iran: during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the West-backed and U.S.-installed Shah is overthrown as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gains power after years in exile.
* Russians in Afghanistan: Soviet forces fight a ten-year war in Afghanistan, from 1979 to 1989.

1983

* Wheel of Fortune: a hit television game show which has been TV's highest-rated syndicated program since 1983.
* Sally Ride: in 1983 she becomes the first American woman in space.
* Heavy metal, suicide: Billy Joel himself had previously stated on his website that even though the two terms are separated by a comma they are collectively one item (like "North Korea, South Korea" above). In the 1980s Ozzy Osbourne and the bands Metallica and Judas Priest were brought to court by parents who accused the musicians of hiding subliminal pro-suicide messages in their music.
* Foreign debts: Persistent US trade deficits lead to substantial foreign debt in the eyes of the 1980s period, particularly to Japan.
* Homeless vets: Veterans of the Vietnam war are homeless and impoverished.
* AIDS: A collection of symptoms and infections in humans resulting from the specific damage to the immune system caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is first detected and recognized in the 1980s, on its way to becoming a pandemic.
* Crack: Refers to crack cocaine, a popular drug in the mid-to-late 1980s.

1984

* Bernie Goetz: On December 22, Goetz becomes a vigilante after being mugged four times; he shoots four young men who he believed to be threatening him on a New York City subway. Goetz was charged with attempted murder, but was acquitted of the charges.

1988

* Hypodermics on the shore: medical waste was found washed up on beaches in New Jersey after being illegally dumped at sea.

1989

* China's under martial law: On May 20, China declares martial law, enabling them to use force of arms to end the Tiananmen Square protests.
* Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore!: soft drink giants Coke and Pepsi each run marketing campaigns using popular music stars to reach the young adult demographic.

Whenever I see someone advocating war, I can't wait to see them personally experience it.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

- Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), "Non-Violence in Peace and War"

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953

I don't know for sure. It could be a reference to Mamie Eisenhower, wife of Ike, who would play piano by ear at parties and at family singalongs, but that may be stretching it.

An epic and incredible documentary - possibly the best political/historical one I've seen:

Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions

The American Documentary Grand Jury Prize was given to WHY WE FIGHT, written and directed by Eugene Jarecki. http://festival.sundance.org/2005/docs/05Awards.pdf

What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine.

He may have been the ultimate icon of 1950s conformity and postwar complacency, but Dwight D. Eisenhower was an iconoclast, visionary, and the Cassandra of the New World Order. Upon departing his presidency, Eisenhower issued a stern, cogent warning about the burgeoning "military industrial complex," foretelling with ominous clarity the state of the world in 2004 with its incestuous entanglement of political, corporate, and Defense Department interests.

Deploying the general's farewell address as his strategic ground zero, Eugene Jarecki launches a full-frontal autopsy of how the will of a people has become an accessory to the Pentagon. Surveying the scorched landscape of a half-century's military misadventures and misguided missions, Jarecki asks how--and tells why--a nation ostensibly of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.

Jarecki, whose previous film, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, took such an unblinking look at our ex-secretary of state, might have delivered his film in time for the last presidential election, but its timing is also its point: It does not matter who is in charge as long as the system remains immune from the checks and balances of a peace-seeking electorate. Brisk, intelligent, and often very, very human, Why We Fight is one of the more powerful films in this year's Festival, and certainly among the most shattering.— Diane Weyermann