Why We Fight

There are portions of this documentary that ignite thought on the topic of America’s “industrial military complex.” Then, there are portions that amount to rather dull filmmaking. The movie basically states that American wars since WWII are based on making money. (Wow! Didn’t know that!) Whether or not you agree with the politics of Why We Fight, it just sort of drags along. It begins with the amazingly prophetic goodbye speech from Ike Eisenhower, where he warned that America could be overtaken by its military objectives and greed, and then the movie loses focus. There’s an interesting storyline involving a man who lost his son on 9/11. He petitioned the military to put his son’s name on a bomb when “revenge” was sought on Iraq, then he felt betrayed when President Bush revealed that Iraq had no direct involvement with the 9/11 attacks. That’s about 10 minutes of the movie … the rest is just repeating what most of us already know.