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

The paradigm must change, before the power-players' will end their bullshit....enjoy the fruits of their control, until they really fuck up....like, come out of hiding-

They always say that the cockroach will probably survive a nuclear holocaust....so may the elite...

The Empire never died...just got smarter and more elusive

Pity they use idiots like our so-called, world leaders, as mouthpieces....

Conspiracy nut you say?? Nope, just a realistic, sensible, meat popsicle.

Hail The Goyim, Hail the sheep;
For they afford the powers' keep:
The next Boston Tea Party, should be held at World Bank Headquarters....with High Explosives, and frozen drinks, with little umbrellas!
Seriously, do any of you see a better way??? Politics as usual, will net the world...DICK!

Excellent documentary.

I agree with choggie, the puppet masters need to show themselves.

That was very sobering. Thanks for posting.

I don't know about them being puppet masters. I believe it's more to do with not considering the actions in the long run over short term benefit, for each day yields a new crisis but the horizon of the future seems endless. The system has worked for a long time, but only now do we realize what that system entails.

Didn't care for the "Blame America First" tone. These ambitious crockumentarians all turn a blind eye to the evils of communism and downplay the evil in the world in their attempts to pin the entire war-drenched history of humanity on America. Puh-leeze.


Of course, it's always easier to fault civilized Americans than islamofascist scum, since the savages attempt to murder anyone who speaks out against them in any media.

And what do the 'civilised americans' do to those that speak out against it? Plus, what are 'the evils of communism'? You sound like a George Bush speech...

'Puh-leeze' quantumushroom: your comment stinks of self-rightous, racist and religious hatred (read: ignorant arrogance, such as: 'islamofascist scum' & 'savages attempt to murder'). You should watch the abundance of other award winning political/historical documenataries on here, to actually understand what's going on.

your comment stinks of self-rightous, racist and religious hatred (read: ignorant arrogance, such as: 'islamofascist scum' & 'savages attempt to murder').

You're partly right. I DO hate religious fanatics of any stripe who kill in the name of God.

This is what happens when people expose radical islam for what it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Gogh_(film_director)

Like I said: savages.

For the many who don't know this already: because a film is labeled a documentary doesn't mean it's factual.

Wow QM, that's a nice way of picking historical events to benefit your arguement isn't it? I mean why not throw in 9/11 there as well and call everyone of Islamic stripe evil or perhaps the Crusades? What are you trying to do exactly? Justify why there should be a continued war of misunderstanding lead against the Eastern civilizations of this world? Would it satiate your need if force directives are continuously used by those who claim to be superpowers?

A thorough and unbiased criticism of American military policy post world war 2 would reveal that the goverment ceaselessly exposes itself to risk of blow back due to military and economic intervention. The price to pay is the worldwide indignation and hatred felt by people who feel that there is no way out. And now those who think there is no other way clearly have taken arms, Reagen said himself that one mans terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Such is the black and white thinking the world degrades to with use of force to achieve objectives. What's even funnier is that to you that would seem like some pinko liberal bullshit, when in reality most of the world backed the US post 9/11 and intervention in Afghanistan, support waned only after a policy of military imperialism was carried out with regards to Iraq with power point slides to convince the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

And mentioning the evils of communism in this day and age when America has actively economic ties with China seems highly hypocritical of your narrow world view. Had we been living in the McCarthy era you would probably support his communist witch hunts as well? Or maybe suggest full scale atomic warfare with USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis? I mean oh my god they are evil communists!!!

You way of thinking leads only to the destruction of the very ideals you claim to so fervently protect. Maybe it's time to reexamine your thinking. But of course that won't happen. Your commentary is hit and run at best. Totally stupid at worst.

http://divx-879.vo.llnwd.net/stage6vid/1350842.divx (direct link -- 872 MB).

y.know...farhads right-the "puppets"...all play the same game, and they have their roles....the end game promise is what we want to know the whys and whats for-

ahh to have the head cleared, with succinct semantics.!

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Excellent film which really shows that we are just as guilty as our enemies. It can be very unnerving and frightening to be faced with the prospect that your country is not as great as you were lead to believe. I am an American, and I do value my freedom, yet I will not let that cloud my intelligence and critical thinking when it comes to down to analyzing all the data presented to me.

And I'll never understand the do-or-die mentality of QM and others who have adopted his mentality; immediately disapproving of anything that would prove contrary to their made up ideas of what constitutes American patriotism, sovereignty or ideology. I have yet to decipher a motive on why this behavior exists. Does it stem from such an ingrained belief that acknowledging mistakes equals weakness, ineptitude or cowardice?; so much so that they will do everything, including denial, as to not appear that way? We all learn from our mistakes...but you have to recognize and acknowledge them first (and always), before you can make progress.

It's most likely due to the fact that I am an idealist and cut from a different cloth. One that doesn't see recognition of our faults as a weakness, and would then take advantage of it to use against others. Perhaps, this is my own fault.

powerfull

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M'eh - as usual with most faux documentaries this one ignores quite a lot. The cold war of the 50s to the late 80s was no figment of imagination. There was a very real need there, and it has to be said that France, Britain, Germany, and the other pillars of Western Civilization were neither interested in, or capable of, dealing with the issue of Communist expansion. Quite to the contrary - as evidenced by their socialist policies most of Western Europe was - in fact - somewhat sympathetic to it.

So the U.S. stepped up to the plate, and via military spending & brinkmanship they contained China, and even collapsed the Soviet Union. It also allows governments like the UK to spend a piddling little 4 to 5% of their budget on defense and the rest on social spending. It also allows smug, self-satisfied twits in the BBC to act all snooty over the fact that the U.S. spends over 24% of its budget on defense while not pointing out the reality that the U.S. defense spending is in fact obliquely subsidizing their own nation's social spending.

But I do think that the U.S. military is long overdue for some cutbacks and oversight. Like most government programs, they are rampant with cronyism, inefficiency, and waste. Let's start by cutting all the military in Western Europe, and letting them pay for their own national defense, eh wot? Wonder how staid the BBC would be if we actually did pack up and do as they suggest and leave them hanging.

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Dan Rather has some well thought out comments on this topic with his forty years of observations as a prominent journalist, and the role of American Media in the US War Machine.

http://videosift.com/video/Dan-Rather-Body-of-War-full-speech

>> ^quantumushroom:

Didn't care for the "Blame America First" tone. These ambitious crockumentarians all turn a blind eye to the evils of communism and downplay the evil in the world in their attempts to pin the entire war-drenched history of humanity on America. Puh-leeze.

Of course, it's always easier to fault civilized Americans than islamofascist scum, since the savages attempt to murder anyone who speaks out against them in any media.


Because it's an American documentary. The point being is that we should be harder on ourselves and apply more rigid standards to ourselves more than anyone else in order to be better and constantly improve. Pointing at other peoples crimes doesn't really help anything because it's the people in those countries who can change the direction their country is headed. In America we have a democracy and we can change a whole hell of a lot the direction of this country that is why we should be critical of ourselves more than anything.

I don't understand your argument...it's like a child telling their mother "but but jimmy did this and that" it's irrelevant.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:

M'eh - as usual with most faux documentaries this one ignores quite a lot. The cold war of the 50s to the late 80s was no figment of imagination. There was a very real need there, and it has to be said that France, Britain, Germany, and the other pillars of Western Civilization were neither interested in, or capable of, dealing with the issue of Communist expansion. Quite to the contrary - as evidenced by their socialist policies most of Western Europe was - in fact - somewhat sympathetic to it.
So the U.S. stepped up to the plate, and via military spending & brinkmanship they contained China, and even collapsed the Soviet Union. It also allows governments like the UK to spend a piddling little 4 to 5% of their budget on defense and the rest on social spending. It also allows smug, self-satisfied twits in the BBC to act all snooty over the fact that the U.S. spends over 24% of its budget on defense while not pointing out the reality that the U.S. defense spending is in fact obliquely subsidizing their own nation's social spending.
But I do think that the U.S. military is long overdue for some cutbacks and oversight. Like most government programs, they are rampant with cronyism, inefficiency, and waste. Let's start by cutting all the military in Western Europe, and letting them pay for their own national defense, eh wot? Wonder how staid the BBC would be if we actually did pack up and do as they suggest and leave them hanging.


No the figment of our imagination was that all that military spending was to combat the soviet union. Notice how the military budget during and after the Cold War didn't drop a cent. That tells us that the spending wasn't really about the Soviets, it was a constant redistribution of wealth to keep an empire going.

Also beating the Soviet Union isn't something the brag about after we got a look at their internal economics. They were a 3rd world country twice destroyed by Germany that built back up and was still very flimsy. The US emerged from WW2 with literally Half the worlds wealth and remained almost completely untouched by the War.

Sorry but where the fuck did you go to college?

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