New Documentary Looks at U.S. War Machine

AMY GOODMAN: 45 years ago, January, 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his final address as President of the United States.

PRES. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: My fellow Americans, this evening I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen. We have been compelled to create a permanent armament industry of vast proportions. Three-and-a-half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. The total influence, economic, political, even spiritual, is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development, yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

AMY GOODMAN: Those words are the starting point for a new film that examines the forces that take a look at the American war machine over the past half-century. The film is called Why We Fight. It’s by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, looking at conflicts from World War II right up until the current war in Iraq, to examine the political, economic and ideological reasons that drive American war policy. The film includes interviews with John McCain, Gore Vidal, William Kristol, Richard Perle, as well as a retired New York City cop and Vietnam vet, who lost a son in the World Trade Center attacks. Why We Fight has won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. It opens in theaters nationwide today. The director Eugene Jarecki's previous film, The Trials of Henry Kissinger was widely acclaimed and won the 2002 Amnesty International Award. Eugene Jarecki joins us in our studio today. Welcome.

“Why We Fight: New Film Takes a Hard Look at the American War Machine From World War II to Iraq,” Democracy Now, 2/10/06.