Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions.
Writing
Jarecki threads archival mastery with disarming clarity.
Editing
Cuts between veteran testimony and war profiteers chill the blood.
Direction
Lets Richard Perle hang himself with his own smugness.
Director
Eugene Jarecki
Gore Vidal
Self - Author, "Imperial America"
Richard Perle
Self - Advisor, U.S. Dept. of Defense
William Kristol
Self - Project for the New American Century
John McCain
Self - Senator (R/AZ)
John Ashcroft
Self (archive footage)
Osama bin Laden
Self (archive footage)
George W. Bush
Self (archive footage)
George H. W. Bush
Self (archive footage)
Robert Byrd
Self (archive footage)
Frank Capra
Self (archive footage)
Dick Cheney
Self (archive footage)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Eugene Jarecki made this after his earlier film The Trials of Henry Kissinger; he comes from a family of foreign policy scholars, including his brother Andrew who directed Capturing the Friedmans.
The title deliberately echoes Frank Capra's WWII propaganda series Why We Fight—Jarecki's film functions as its bitter, inverted sequel for the permanent war era.
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