praxis1966
13th August 2010, 17:41
I just got this yesterday from Netflix and almost sent it back without even viewing it. I don't know about you guys, but after eight long years under the Bush administration, I'm kind of suffering from nervous exhaustion on the subject which I think had a lot to do with it. Anyway, I decided to actually watch it and was pleased I did, probably due in no small part to the clever direction of Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger).
There were some rather interesting juxtapositions that a cinephile like me appreciated, specifically a shot of Donald Rumsfeld testifying before a House appropriations committee, "From my standpoint, numbers are almost distracting," immediately followed by a shot of a speeding train, suggesting that US military spending was an unstoppable force hurtling forward and beyond control. Pretty obvious I'd say, but there were other more subtle examples, including an exterior as the interviewers pull into the driveway of a former lieutenant colonel who worked at the Pentagon where a dog is running around barking and off-leash which was immediately preceded by a discussion on how Saddam Hussein, the former fair haired boy of the US securocrats who in the 90s grew beyond their control.
Anyway, though Why We Fight does contain some pretty good analysis of the military-industrial complex in particular and the militaristic nature of US foreign policy in general, I don't think that's it's real value. Despite an overt bent toward the left, there is some balance in the treatment of the subject matter. For instance, Jarecki actually got John McCain to say on camera that the interrelationship between think tanks, the defense industry, congress, and the military is a dangerous threat to democracy (!). Therefore, I think it can be a valuable resource in convincing acquaintances of liberal, or perhaps even conservative, persuasions that perhaps we're not just a bunch of loonies and some of our arguments actually do hold water (it hammers home, for instance, the fact that President and former Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the one who coined the phrase "military-industrial complex").
At any rate, I found it online and in its entirety for free here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682#) if you care to take a gander.
There were some rather interesting juxtapositions that a cinephile like me appreciated, specifically a shot of Donald Rumsfeld testifying before a House appropriations committee, "From my standpoint, numbers are almost distracting," immediately followed by a shot of a speeding train, suggesting that US military spending was an unstoppable force hurtling forward and beyond control. Pretty obvious I'd say, but there were other more subtle examples, including an exterior as the interviewers pull into the driveway of a former lieutenant colonel who worked at the Pentagon where a dog is running around barking and off-leash which was immediately preceded by a discussion on how Saddam Hussein, the former fair haired boy of the US securocrats who in the 90s grew beyond their control.
Anyway, though Why We Fight does contain some pretty good analysis of the military-industrial complex in particular and the militaristic nature of US foreign policy in general, I don't think that's it's real value. Despite an overt bent toward the left, there is some balance in the treatment of the subject matter. For instance, Jarecki actually got John McCain to say on camera that the interrelationship between think tanks, the defense industry, congress, and the military is a dangerous threat to democracy (!). Therefore, I think it can be a valuable resource in convincing acquaintances of liberal, or perhaps even conservative, persuasions that perhaps we're not just a bunch of loonies and some of our arguments actually do hold water (it hammers home, for instance, the fact that President and former Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the one who coined the phrase "military-industrial complex").
At any rate, I found it online and in its entirety for free here (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682#) if you care to take a gander.