Reading a newspaper in January 2006, one feels a tragic sense of
deja vu. Stories of violent insurgencies, military operations and
ceaselessly rising body counts are reported with such regularity
that a person can often find it difficult to distinguish one
day’s news from the last. War has become an accepted, perhaps
even expected, element of the American experience in the early 21st
century. But one critical question remains woefully unresolved for
some ““ why do we fight?
With U.S. forces already committing billions of dollars and
thousands of troops to the war in Iraq, it seems like the question
should have been posed and answered conclusively years ago.
Yet Eugene Jarecki’s new documentary “Why We
Fight,” in theaters Jan. 20, shows that the answer still
eludes most Americans.
Jarecki traveled to 30 states recording the opinions of ordinary
citizens regarding the military conduct of their government. When
asked how they construed U.S. motivations for initiating the
conflict in Iraq, responses were marked by a consistent vagueness
and uncertainty. Some simply stared blankly at the camera and
confessed, as one man did, “I actually don’t have an
answer for you.”
For those who did muster a response, abstract principles such as
freedom and liberty were conjured up.
The filmmaker attributes this limited understanding of U.S.
foreign policy to the romanticized memory of the American victory
in World War II and the increasing complexity of international
conflict in the years after 1945.
“We think of America as fighting on the side of the
angels,” Jarecki said.
“The problem is that since World War II, the reasons for
going to war have become more textured and shadowed. It is less
clear why we are fighting.”
His film attempts to create a bit more clarity through a probing
analysis that spans from Hiroshima to the World Trade Center, from
weapons contractors to novelists, and from right to left, in the
search for the truth behind the U.S.’s military
activities.
“Why We Fight” begins with the 1960 farewell address
of former President Eisenhower, in which the former general warns
of the threat of a “military-industrial complex”
gaining “unwarranted influence” in policy-making. The
speech, already familiar to anyone who has seen Oliver
Stone’s “J.F.K.,” brought attention to the
burgeoning defense industry, whose size and influence grew
tremendously during and after World War II.
Eisenhower feared that this new industrial behemoth could
potentially use its economic clout and political connections with
the military to guide the U.S. in its own interest. And its own
interest lay chiefly in war.
Jarecki identifies Eisenhower’s address as the inspiration
for this film. While conducting research for his 2002 documentary
“The Trials of Henry Kissinger” he came upon the
footage and was immediately struck by the resonance of the former
president’s words.
“I don’t think an American president before or since
has spoken as truthfully,” he said.
Expanding upon Eisenhower’s thesis, “Why We
Fight” explores various forces that contribute to the
belligerence of U.S. foreign policy: the aforementioned
military-industrial complex, media, think tanks, corporations, as
well as more personal factors such as poverty, grief and the thirst
for adventure.
“There are forces in our society that tilt toward war in a
rather tragic way,” Jarecki said. “The goal of the film
is to shed light on that.”
One of the most powerful figures in the film is Wilton Sekzer, a
Vietnam War veteran and retired New York police officer whose son
was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
He unabashedly shares his confused emotions regarding the
senseless death of his son and the reaction of the U.S. military.
Watching home videos of his now-incomplete family and recounting
his quest to have a bomb used in Iraq named after his departed
child, he embodies the conflicted sentiments defining the American
people since Sept. 11 ““ grief for our losses and the
insatiable yearning for vengeance.
“The most remarkable person I met during the film was
Wilton Sekzer,” Jarecki said. “He’s a deeply
complex and challenging person. He is someone who makes it
difficult to think with prejudice, to think with
cliches.”
“The film was forever changed by my meeting him,” he
added. “It gives a firsthand perspective. I hope it makes the
film more personal.”
While the documentary studies the nature of U.S. military
activities, not all perspectives are American. An interesting
feature of the film are the candid comments shared by Iraqis
regarding the 2003 invasion, or liberation, depending on
one’s perspective, which revealed the wide variety of Iraqi
perspectives on “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
“When we talked to Iraqis, there was a disproportionate
range of feelings,” Jarecki said.
The filmmaker said the Iraqis’ diverse opinions illuminate
one of the most important themes of the documentary.
“The complexity of the Iraqi people defied the simplicity
imposed by policy makers and the media,” he said.
“The human spirit is too expansive and rich to be
contained in the predictable way. It’s that very complexity
that’s at the heart of democracy.”
And Jarecki worries that as the U.S. mobilizes for military
actions in the name of democracy across the globe, the nation might
compromise the very qualities it aims to instill in other
nations.
“Decisions like war ““ life-and-death decisions
““ are too greatly being influenced by what Eisenhower called
“˜unwarranted influence,'” he said. “We are
watching the very heart of democracy erode.”
Nevertheless, Jarecki remains guardedly optimistic regarding the
future of American democracy, taking comfort in the thought that
his documentary could serve as part of the solution.
“The starting point is better engagement by the people in
the life of the country,” he said.
“If we do not become vigilant, we will find that the very
country we hold dear has escaped. This is a film meant to urge
people to fight for democracy, and I mean at home.”