This film was well made researched and put together, No doubt about that, It is a much better film than any or Mr Moores, and does a good job of reminding people about the dangers of letting military spending and influence get out of control. It also allows for some different views from different people. So for that it should be commended.
"Why we fight" however is the type of movie that when watched by people with little understanding of they history of The Roman Empire, The Second World War, The Soviet Union (which this movie somewhat suggests wasn't a threat), The Dynamics of the Cold war and The current Russian-Sino relationship and the way they develop and sell weapons leads to that Mr. Moore undergraduate hysteria which isn't a good thing by any means. The film also plays on peoples very poor understanding of the relationship between Sadam Hussein the United States.
The biggest mistake that this film makes is its very poor understanding or unwillingness to show the actual success of American Military Technology. They show the failure to of missile strikes to hit their targets. Which is untrue. The weapons do in fact hit the location where they are supposed to. The targets where the higher ups in the Sadam regime, who where often where not in these buildings. These people know the tactics of the USAF and their precision. They therefore use high-risk targets as bomb shelters for civilians to erode support for America and its allies. It happened during the 1st Gulf War and it happened during this one. Omission of this and extending blame only to the USAF is once again shows the lack of willingness of the filmmakers to tell the whole story.
The film is ripe with very shallow reasoning such as this explained above. Towards the end of the film you see a young boy behind bars. Sadams Regime imprisoned that person but we are lead to believe by the sequence of events that he is subject of brutality by America. The film pulls tricks like these time after time and it hurts credibility.
The film makes good points about the dangers of the MIC but misses the context of the times we live in. The Cold War put America in the position to make Luke warm relationships with people they didn't like ("I wish there was a way they could both lose" comments made about the Iran Iraq war). The might of the world's biggest military is now being used to clean up this mess. Russian, France, China, other countries with their hands equally covered in blood during interventions in during the cold war gulf war etc, do very little to clean up the mess made by all of us.
The hospitals schools and social programs of Europe where all paid for by American defence spending holding back the Bear of the Soviet Union, freeing up Europe's budgets for social spending. The world is and will be safer with a free Iraq, a disarmed Libya and a marginalized North Korea. Iran will only understand the strength of America not the EU. The Massive Regan era build up which brought the Soviet Union to its knees all of these if looked at through the eyes of this of movie would been seen as foolish expeditions in imperialism.
The movie goes out to try to make a good statement about the dangers of imperialism and the connection between the Military Industrial Complex connected to it but instead gets caught in the same anti-Bush anti-American trap that confuses the symbolism of what America does and the parallels between that and other empires with the reality of the world today. Watch this movie no matter who you are you'll enjoy and learn some things. Don't just watch this movie to form an opinion though.
"Why we fight" however is the type of movie that when watched by people with little understanding of they history of The Roman Empire, The Second World War, The Soviet Union (which this movie somewhat suggests wasn't a threat), The Dynamics of the Cold war and The current Russian-Sino relationship and the way they develop and sell weapons leads to that Mr. Moore undergraduate hysteria which isn't a good thing by any means. The film also plays on peoples very poor understanding of the relationship between Sadam Hussein the United States.
The biggest mistake that this film makes is its very poor understanding or unwillingness to show the actual success of American Military Technology. They show the failure to of missile strikes to hit their targets. Which is untrue. The weapons do in fact hit the location where they are supposed to. The targets where the higher ups in the Sadam regime, who where often where not in these buildings. These people know the tactics of the USAF and their precision. They therefore use high-risk targets as bomb shelters for civilians to erode support for America and its allies. It happened during the 1st Gulf War and it happened during this one. Omission of this and extending blame only to the USAF is once again shows the lack of willingness of the filmmakers to tell the whole story.
The film is ripe with very shallow reasoning such as this explained above. Towards the end of the film you see a young boy behind bars. Sadams Regime imprisoned that person but we are lead to believe by the sequence of events that he is subject of brutality by America. The film pulls tricks like these time after time and it hurts credibility.
The film makes good points about the dangers of the MIC but misses the context of the times we live in. The Cold War put America in the position to make Luke warm relationships with people they didn't like ("I wish there was a way they could both lose" comments made about the Iran Iraq war). The might of the world's biggest military is now being used to clean up this mess. Russian, France, China, other countries with their hands equally covered in blood during interventions in during the cold war gulf war etc, do very little to clean up the mess made by all of us.
The hospitals schools and social programs of Europe where all paid for by American defence spending holding back the Bear of the Soviet Union, freeing up Europe's budgets for social spending. The world is and will be safer with a free Iraq, a disarmed Libya and a marginalized North Korea. Iran will only understand the strength of America not the EU. The Massive Regan era build up which brought the Soviet Union to its knees all of these if looked at through the eyes of this of movie would been seen as foolish expeditions in imperialism.
The movie goes out to try to make a good statement about the dangers of imperialism and the connection between the Military Industrial Complex connected to it but instead gets caught in the same anti-Bush anti-American trap that confuses the symbolism of what America does and the parallels between that and other empires with the reality of the world today. Watch this movie no matter who you are you'll enjoy and learn some things. Don't just watch this movie to form an opinion though.