Why We Fight was first screened at the
Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 2005, exactly forty-four years after President
Dwight D. Eisenhower's
farewell address. Although it won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, the film received a
limited public cinema release on January 22, 2006. It also won one of the 2006
Grimme Awards in the competition "Information & Culture"; the prize is one of Germany's most prestigious for television productions[2] and a
Peabody Award in 2006.[3]
Synopsis
Why We Fight describes the rise and maintenance of the United States
military–industrial complex and its 50-year involvement with the wars led by the United States to date, especially its
2003 invasion of Iraq. The documentary asserts that in every decade since World War II, the American public was misled so that the government (incumbent
Administration) could take them to war and fuel the military-industrial economy maintaining American political dominance in the world. Interviewed about this matter are politician
John McCain, political scientist and former
CIA analyst
Chalmers Johnson, politician
Richard Perle,
neoconservative commentator
William Kristol, writer
Gore Vidal, and public policy expert
Joseph Cirincione.
Why We Fight documents the consequences of said foreign policy with the stories of a
Vietnam War veteran whose son was killed in the
September 11, 2001 attacks, and who then asked the military to write the name of his dead son on any bomb to be dropped in Iraq; a 23-year-old
New Yorker who enlists in the
United States Army because he was poor and in debt, his decision impelled by his mother's death; and a military explosives scientist (
Anh Duong) who arrived in the U.S. as a
refugee child from
Vietnam in 1975.
Producer's list
The producer's list included "more than a dozen organizations, from the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to the United Kingdom's BBC, Estonia's ETV and numerous European broadcasters" but no U.S. names.[4] The
Sundance Institute did, however, provide completion funding.[4] Writer and director Jarecki said "serious examination of Eisenhower and the aftermath of his speech proved 'too radical' for potential American funders for his film" and except for Sundance, he "could not raise a dollar in the U.S."[4]
Richard Perle, Chairman, Pentagon Defense Policy Board (2001–03): worked in the U.S. Government for three decades, and is an architect of the George W. Bush Administration's
foreign policy. As a writer, he regularly is published in conservative news publications.
Gwynne Dyer: military historian, writer, and journalist who has worked for the Canadian, British, and American militaries. He published books, articles, information papers, and a radio series, about
international affairs.
John Eisenhower, son of President Eisenhower, Military Historian: A military historian member of White House staff during his father's administration. He is a retired
Brigadier General (USA) and served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium, 1969 and 1971.
Charles Lewis, Center for Public Integrity: Founder, and ex-executive director,
Center for Public Integrity—non-profit, non-partisan "watch-dog" organisation established in 1989—investigating and reporting their research about U.S. public policies
Wilton Sekzer, retired police sergeant,
New York City Police Department, Vietnam veteran: Vietnam veteran, door gunner from the 13th Combat Aviation Battalion, whose son was killed on 9/11. After the attacks, he says the Bush Administration made him believe
Saddam Hussein was responsible. He e-mailed every military branch, asking if his son's name might be written on a bomb to be dropped on Iraq. Later, he is uncertain if he should regret his actions, after hearing President Bush claim he does not know from where people got the idea that there was a link between
Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks.
William Solomon: twenty-three-year-old soldier. Deployed to Iraq on January 10, 2005, for 18 months, as a helicopter mechanic. It appears Solomon made it to Sergeant in the
1st Battalion 52nd Aviation Regiment,
Fort Wainwright, Alaska, according to a website that reports on different activities of soldiers. There is a photo of Solomon[5] and a specialist talking to basketball coaches in Kuwait at Camp Virginia. The coaches are on their way to Iraq to participate in Operation Hardwood 5 which is a program that brings US basketball coaches to the American troops in the Middle East.
Frank "Chuck" Spinney, retired military Analyst:
Lehigh University-schooled mechanical engineer (class of 1967), worked in the USAF, in Ohio, before working in the Pentagon's Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation in 1977. He became a harsh critic of the Pentagon, later known as the "Conscience of the Pentagon", when he attacked the spiraling spending increase in the report "Defense facts of life", published in 1982, later known as the "Spinney Report", which earned a cover on "Time" magazine.
Gore Vidal, author of Imperial America: writer, playwright, screen writer, novelist, and essayist, he has written books on American foreign policy explaining the American empire.
Military participants
'Fuji' and 'Tooms': USAF stealth fighter pilots 'Fuji' and 'Tooms' dropped the first bombs on Baghdad city, starting the Iraq War in 2003.
Colonel Walter W. Saeger, Jr., director, U.S. Air Force
Munitions Directorate: Director of the Air-to-Surface Munitions Directorate, Ogden Air Logistics Center,
Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
Colonel
Lawrence Wilkerson, Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell: From 1984 to 1987, Col. Wilkerson was Executive Assistant to Admiral Stewart A. Ring, USN, Director for Strategy and Policy (J5) USCINCPAC. In the 1990s Col. Wilkerson was Director of the USMC War College, Quantico, Virginia. He has written much about military and national security affairs in mainstream and professional journals.[6]