Artwork courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics	Why We Fight
	Finally, an intelligent alternative to the pompous ass otherwise known as Michael Moore.  Instead of just thumbing his nose and flipping-off Republicans like Moore’s infamous 2004 film, Fahrenheit 9/11, Eugene Jarecki’s, Why We Fight, stops to examine the economic and political reasons behind America’s current war with Iraq.  Don’t be misled by the title, this political documentary is no morale-boosting Frank Capra production.  Instead, Jarecki draws from Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address in which the former president warns about the dangers of America’s growing military industrial complex by looking at the deep-rooted ties between capitalism and democracy.
At first, you want to laugh at the clip of Eisenhower saying, “God help this country when someone sits in this desk who doesn’t know as much about the military as I do.”  But, Jarecki hits hard and fast with alarming statistics from politicians, journalists, Iraqi civilians, soldiers, historians, and even Pentagon employees driving home the fact that America spends more on defense than China, Russia, and every other member of NATO combined.  Why?  Simply put, the military industrial complex – fueled by lobbyists and other pervasive politicians – holds zero accountability.  No one voted these people into appointed think tank positions inside the Pentagon; yet, according to one former Pentagon employee, these are the very same people who spend the majority of their time finding ways of exploiting American patriotism in order to gain public support for a war they decided to fight with Iraq years before it actually happened.  Jarecki also addresses the role of capitalism and its effect by investigating profit margins of companies such as Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown, & Root with the profit of the latter increasing from $1 million to $60 - $70 within a five year period thanks to hefty defense contracts.  By the time Jarecki asks the question, “When did the political elite become the financial elite?” you are already nodding your head in assent.  There’s no doubt that war is profitable.  We just need to start asking who is profiting from it.  Like I said earlier, this a liberal documentary; and, Jarecki exploits this by blatantly pointing out Dick Chaney’s questionable ties to Halliburton and championing Gore Vidal’s comment about America being the “United States of Amnesia.”  Yet, despite his moments of explicit liberalism, Jarecki’s film succeeds where Moore’s fails in the sense that he allows the material speak for itself.  He incorporates personal stories from retired New York cop, William Sekzer, who feels his patriotism was exploited and turned into a need for vengeance over the death of his son during 9/11.  Jarecki also interviews 20 year Air Force veteran, Karen Kwiatkowski, about how the Pentagon purposely misconstrued intelligence reports in order to build public support for the war.  But, what got my attention were the interviews with the Iraqi civilians and one doctor in particular as he showed Jarecki the inside of a shack that was being used to stack corpses of civilian casualties.  For a minute, I had a flashback to Resnasis’ holocaust film, Night and Fog, and the horrors of Auschwitz.  By the end of the film, I too was asking when America became the very thing we once sought to destroy.  When did the republic become the empire?  Are we really trapped inside the world of Lucasfilm where Anakin turns to the dark side of the force and becomes Darth Vader?  Or is Karen Kwiatkowski correct when she says we need to find the guts to stand up and say, “I’m not doing this anymore.”  In either case, Jarecki’s Why We Fight presents one hell of an argument for examining the matter further.  © Kelly Bartley 2006