True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Why We Fight
This is a complex anti-war film. I recommend all lefties and righties see
it. It’s sort of a civics class.
Its main thesis was articulated by President Dwight Eisenhower, who was
no peacenik. As a former US general, Eisenhower was deeply familiar
with how the agendas of military contractors meshed with the agenda
of a vast standing army to form one large mutually self-reinforcing force
called the “military-industrial complex” – a term he coined. This complex
was hard to vote against, and therefore hard to constrain. By the end of
his term Eisenhower was sincerely alarmed by its influence. He felt that if
unchecked it threaten to overtake the interests of a democracy.
To illustrate Eisenhower’s fear of a military-industrial complex gone berserk
this film traces its unequivocal expansion since Eisenhower. It retells
recent US wars, chiefly Iraq, in the language of the ones who benefit most
from the wars. When we fight, they win. Do we fight so that they can win?
The filmmakers don’t deal with alternative or supplemental reasons for
“why we fight,” so their case is not a balanced trial. But it is a very informative
and eye-opening argument. I found it convincing enough that it
moved me to agree with President Eisenhower. We should be alarmed by
the complex’s power since it gains so much when we fight. The film is a
little preachy, suggesting that in order to purify “why we fight” we need to
relentlessly push back against this entrenched system which often hides
its self-interest in a flag. The desires of the military-industrial complex are
not the only reason why we fight, but as this film makes so visible and
plain, it can easily become the only reason if we aren’t vigilant.
By Eugene Jarecki
2005, 98 min.
Available from Amazon
Rent from Netflix
President Eisenhower delivers his famous
“military-industrial complex” warning (left)
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