“Defense budget was 3/4 of a trillion dollars last year. Profits were 25%. If war becomes that profitable, you are going to see more of it.”

Director Eugene Jarecki has created a documentary film that provides insights into the structures behind military decisions by political leaders. The movie examines the world’s most powerful and dynamic military nation - the United States of America – whose conservative think tanks are officially working towards full spectrum dominance on the model of a new Roman Empire.

Notably, the movie does not polarise but includes many interviewees pertaining to the conservative party.

The movie provides important insights into the interrelations between politics, the military and society, and the challenges or obstacles that they represent for achieving a peaceful world. The film’s website http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html offers a lot of information and starts with out with a most prominent voice that warned of this danger 45 years ago: United States Dwight D. President Eisenhower.

The basic thread of the documentary leads from

1. the famous Farewell Address by famous former US General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower (the politician that knew best how the military thinks) - a straightforward warning to the American people about the military industrial complex as a threat to a peace-oriented democracy in the interest of the American people and the world,

2. over a variety of issues showing how the American society is permeated by a Culture of War in all sectors of society. The film focuses mainly on economic factors (5% of the nation’s working places are directly related to the military sector), the protection of “American interests” (resource access for lifestyle and comfort) abroad by military intervention all over the world especially since the 1950s, and the determination of so-called neocon think tanks like the “Project for a New American Century” PNAC to install an American World Empire on the model of the Roman Empire,

3. and consequently to the question of a politician asking why - despite hundreds of thousands of protesters on American streets and millions worldwide – there is absolute *Silence in Congress – no debate on the war… that you could hear a needle being dropped. The film's answer: Simply because most or all politicians have becomes dependant on the military industrial complex.

The website announces:

"Coming soon for Download: the Why We Fight Study Guide

THE EISENHOWER PROJECT

WHY WE FIGHT is a presentation of The Eisenhower Project, a national academic initiative dedicated in the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower to promote study of the forces shaping American foreign and defense policy. Inspired by Eisenhower's peerless career as a military professional, as a President, and as an educator who served as President of Columbia University from 1948 to 1952, the Project is dedicated to applying the unique wisdom of this 20th century war hero and champion of peace to contemporary challenges in an academic framework.

The Eisenhower Project encourages student engagement in issues facing American defense. With the support of The Eisenhower Project's national office, students may elect to form a chapter of The Eisenhower Project on their campus. These chapters conduct various forms of study and student activity relating to examining American foreign and defense policy.

For more information about The Eisenhower Project or the requirements for starting a chapter on your campus please email

Coming soon: Eisenhower Project Starter Kit

For more information, please email mail@TheEisenhowerProject.com"

*It is important to note that the statements so convincingly made by some people interviewed in the film are - in fact - not true. The film unveils these statements as lies, but this requires serious attention, knowledge of historical context and which political parties the interviewed people belong to. This should be observed while watching the film in order to understand the picture evolving.

Also, it is very important not to polarise into good and bad, or form a dualistic black and white image after seeing this one film. The film should simply be understood as a trigger for developing a sense of attention to this vital but usually invisible matter, to the serious crisis and tremendous challenges involved in achieving a Culture of Peace (UNESCO).  

The film’s website includes a section “What you can do". Further comments are included below.

Reviews:  

You can find a lot of reviews by searching the internet. Here are two examples:

Review Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=7672

Review Rolling Stones Magazine: http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/_/id/6823996/rid/9166284/?rnd=1141655495036&has-player=unknown

Some words about the film's deeper societal and cultural implications:

A Culture of Peace or a Culture of War – a Global Issue!

In the last thousand years, England has been at war for 56 years out of every hundred, says Diana Basterfield, who has presented a Bill for the creation of a Ministry of Peace to the British Parliament "What is needed is a shift. Our culture must be permeated with the tools of non-violence and conflict resolution. We must wage peace with sophistication and commitment just as we now wage war".

“Why We Fight” delivers insights of extraordinary importance as concerns sustainability and a global, peaceful, just and sustainable civilisation. There cannot be sustainability without peace.

This film serves well to stimulate attention on one of the most invisible but most crucial influence factors on a world of peace or of war: the military industrial complex. And it makes good sense to transfer the insights into the American situation and the groups associated with it to other countries as well. War, and the transfer to a Culture of Peace is a global issue, a basic necessity for a positive future.

Concerning the “Project for a New American Century” PNAC to install an American World Empire on the model of the Roman Empire.  Avoiding that any other nation could possible challenge this position of “full spectrum dominance”, if necessary, with pre-emptive military strikes, including nuclear weapons.

Of course, this is absolutely incongruent and against the idea and ideal of a democratic global community like the United Nations. This fact needs to be understood especially before the facts that key members of the current government administration are part of the PNAC think tank.

Working towards a fair, a DEMOCRATIC global decision-making structure and culture like the United Nations, how must the vision of a New Roman American Empire be understood and evaluated? World dominance is in fact military and economic dictatorship(!) and so are the plans and means described in the vision of the PNAC. Could a political interest group pursuing different aims from a fair global civilisation have the power to achieve their interests? Maybe this is what lies behind the explorations of this documentary.  

“Peace is not the Opposite of War, and not the Time Period between two Wars. Peace is More. Peace is the Law of Human Life. Peace is When we Act Honourably, and when there is Justice between each Human Being and Each People.” Native American Wisdom

“What you can do”.

This is a serious question, and we want to offer just a few hints at where and how deep one has to look to understand the "Culture of War, Denial, Exploitation and Competition" (that most of us grow up in) compared to a "Culture of Peace, Appreciation, Affection, Sharing and Cooperation" that will take a huge effort to install in our societies!  And we suggest you start thinking about being part of introducing Global Peace & Sustainability Education in every school you know!

“Culture is like an Ice Berg. It has seen and it has unseen aspects. It is the unseen ones that create and influence the seen aspects.” World Wise School of the Peace Corps

Concerning a Culture of War, the film focuses on economic and military interests, but these are only symptoms of a culture of competition and war. The following examples are taken from the US-American context, and similar examples could be found in many other nations: Other, are more obviously “social” and “cultural” manifestations include: warfare terminology in language (just think of sports commentators), entertainment (a major ice figure skating event with American and Russian skaters in 1996 was called Ice Wars; five years after the Cold War ended; the emotionalised tennis competition between Stefanie Graf and Monica Seles was called “The War”), extreme violence in movie and television, high numbers of criminals and criminal detention centres (the USA spend more money on jails then on schools), an extreme competitiveness already in school Physical Education.

A study on cultural differences in physical education competition reports on a US-American (Arizona) high school basketball coach who would – or, could (!) not take the best(!) players on the team because the students of Native American Navajo descent would simply not “destroy the enemy” team. The Navajo students would always keep the lead at a maximum of four points, for fairness reasons. Something the white children would not care about.

Positive acceptance of warfare can even be found to be straight out manifested in a National Anthem (which gains the meaning of a collective national consciousness if omnipresent) “Rockets flying through the air” for “Liberty”.

However, remember the Ice Berg example! The social and political manifestations and arguments of the Culture of War are born from an “underlying worldview” of competition and exploitation and subjugation. This worldview – in European context - is coined by the assumption that “Humans Beings were Born Bad / Sinners / Competitive by Nature” – which is a gross generalisation by English philosopher Hobbes and not scientifically relevant.

Secondly, the competitive worldview is strengthened by the idea of different quality classes of human beings. It may be useful to note that in Germany, the note of “race” is obsolete because there are no significant genetical differences between human beings of different colour, and therefore it is not valid to classify by race at all. The scientific attempt to create racial difference is therefore obsolete, but the belief is still present in societies.

Thirdly, the competitive worldview is strengthened by the (supposedly scientific) assumption that the interrelation of all species and human societies was ruled by the principle of “Survival of the Fittest” – which is a gross misinterpretation of Charles Darwin (who developed the theory of evolution and success of species by best adaptation to their ecological environment). It has been shown that this was not Darwin’s finding nor conclusion, - but Darwin stressed ten times more the importance of empathy, cooperation and love.

“Psychologist, David Loye, author of Darwin’s Lost Theory of Love goes further and shows how Charles Darwin’s great work was co-opted in Victorian Britain to emphasize “the survival of the fittest” and justify class divisions and competition, which Darwin mentioned only briefly. This model of human nature was adopted by economists as their “rational economic man” who maximized his self-interest in competition with all others (still taught in economics). Darwin focused instead on the evolution of altruism, cooperation, bonding, sharing and trust as one of the bases of human success. For more, visit www.thedarwinproject.com.” Hazel Henderson 

So, there remains a long way to develop for the urban, industrial nations to live a Culture of Peace. 

On political level, the initiatives for installing a Ministry of Peace are of high interest. They exist in the USA, Great Britain, Italy, and maybe also in your country!

But foremost, it must be emphasised that a new worldview, priorities, lifestyle and competence for societal transformation towards a Culture of Peace derive from a long term process of learning and experience! This is why the introduction and integration of Sustainability, Peace and Ethical Value Education / Learning are an urgent, necessary step. You can learn about the world’s most holistic and outstanding learning programs in our section “School Evolution” and the “Good Learning Exposition” which focus on concrete materials EMPOWERING YOU to introduce Peace & Sustainability Learning programs in your schools!  

MOVIE WEBSITE: www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/main.html

no news in this list.