Review of Why We Fight (2005) by Walter M — 18 Apr 2007

[font=Century Gothic]"Why We Fight" is an informative but flawed documentary, that despite providing a comprehensive history lesson through talking heads, participants and archival footage, does not make a very good case.

It starts off with Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 farewell address where he explains the menace of the Military Industrial Complex.(It is curious that the film praises Eisenhower's presidency in many ways but two of the most infamous Cold War foreign interventions - Iran and Guatemala - happened on his watch.

) The central thesis of the movie is how that has corrupted American foreign policy but I would argue that the weapons makers are simply a group of bottom feeders and war profiteers who have no direct affect on foreign policy.

Instead, the government's self-righteous attitude leads the United States into perpetual conflict, first with the Soviet Union and now moving onto Iran and North Korea. In fact, the invasion of Iraq was nothing more than a cynical exploitation of post 9/11 blood lust, waged by an administration looking for an easy win to heighten its popularity, with little congressional opposition due to a lack of backbone, not corruption.

And it is ironic that one of the reasons for the invasion was to stop terrorism, when instead it seems to be the cause of the opposite. [/font].