WHY WE FIGHT

WHY WE FIGHT is a manipulative left-wing documentary about the Iraq War, American foreign policy and alleged corruption in the U.S. defense industry. Only one of the many accusations the movie brings up seems to have any possible real merit to it, but more investigation would be needed to prove that allegation.

The movie argues that the fight against Communism from the 1950s to the 1990s and the fight against terrorism now, especially the current Iraq War, are phony, evil and unnecessary fights supported by greedy defense contractors. It uses President Dwight Eisenhower’s speech comments on the “military industrial complex” to slam those politicians, bureaucrats and intellectuals who support the war against Communism and the War on Terror. It levels widespread, but often vague, charges of corruption against many of those people, especially the current Bush administration and its cronies and supporters. It also briefly shows the Iraq War, but only to claim that American bombs are killing many innocent civilians. It never stops to say, however, that those terrible deaths are unintentional.

Only one of the many accusations the movie brings up seems to have any possible merit to it. That accusation is the charge that Vice-President Dick Cheney, who has been Defense Secretary under both President Gerald Ford and President Bush number one, used his experience as Defense Secretary to get military contracts for two companies he privately worked for: Halliburton and KBR. This accusation may have some merit because it has long been known how government bureaucrats and elected officials, when out of office, become lobbyists for corporations who then get special favors and profitable government contracts. This has been a major accusation leveled for years against the defense industry, Congress and the military. Even so, the documentary doesn’t prove the specific accusations against Cheney and Bush, and doesn’t give them or their supporters a real chance to respond to them. How convenient!

Other than that, this documentary gets most of its historical facts wrong, and it views everything in an anti-American, pro-terrorist, Neo-Marxist or Communist worldview that is humanist, or atheist.

For example, the movie agrees with the anti-American, Communist protestors of the Vietnam War. These protests actually led to total American withdrawal, which in turn led to Communist mass murder in both Cambodia and Vietnam. In reality, contrary to this documentary, the United States military was winning that war, and it lost the war because the weak politicians in the United States weren’t willing to let the military do what it had to do to defeat Communist North Vietnam. Furthermore, the Vietnam War, though it was lost, did in fact ensure that Asian nations and city-states like Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong maintained at least some level of economic and political freedom and independence. The continued economic strength of these places in Asia benefits the United States, the cause of liberty and world peace.

WHY WE FIGHT never interviews conservatives like Pat Buchanan, who has similar criticisms of current foreign policy, but from a traditional conservative, Christian worldview. Mr. Buchanan, for instance, also criticizes widespread international interference by America, but he supports a judicious defense of American interests abroad. He also generally supports America’s fight against Communism and against international terrorism. By interviewing Mr. Buchanan, and honestly considering his conservative, Christian perspective, the filmmakers might have gained more credibility and made their movie less of an anti-American, Communist diatribe.

The biggest error the documentary makes, however, is that it never gives the other side, or its supporters, a chance to respond to the many specific accusations and alleged facts in the movie. For example, several left-wing, liberal former military analysts make many specific charges against the Reagan and Bush administrations, but no one from those administrations, or their supporters, is given one chance to respond to those specific charges! Thus, the movie is completely manipulative and deceitful. In fact, Sen. John McCain himself, who is interviewed in the movie, has charged that the documentary, which was partly funded by the leftist-controlled BBC and Canadian government television, takes his comments about defense contractors out of context.

Whether McCain’s complaint is true or not, however, the movie uses a well-known propaganda trick that is particularly deceitful. In its accusations against Cheney, it shows Cheney and some of his supporters saying that the Vice President has no control over what defense contracts his former companies are getting. This is probably true now, but the documentary also discusses Cheney’s work for those companies when he was a private citizen. It never shows Cheney or his supporters even talking about those periods in his life, or discussing the movie’s allegations about that period. This not only is unjust because it is patently unfair to Cheney and his supporters, it’s also extremely deceitful.

Furthermore, President Ronald Reagan clearly proved in the 1980s that President Eisenhower’s warning about the military industrial complex had some big holes in it. Contrary to President Eisenhower’s opinion, President Reagan showed that a commitment to massive military buildup can indeed help defeat worldwide evils like International Communism. President Reagan’s massive buildup in the 1980s and his commitment to strategic missile defense spending was one of the major reasons the Soviet Union had to pull back from Eastern Europe and other nations like Latvia. Even now, Russia, China and North Korea are building new nuclear missiles that endanger the United States and the world. This is also the intent of the Islamic regime in Iran. Do you want the fascists in Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran to go unchecked?

Finally, the filmmakers show some Iraqi civilians who were unintentionally killed by some American bombs during the recent Iraq War, but they say little or nothing about the many murder victims and mutilated victims of Saddam Hussein’s neo-fascist socialist regime. They also don’t say anything against the terrorists in Iraq who are murdering and beheading civilians, including Americans, British and Europeans. Nor do they show any of the many positive acts of kindness demonstrated by so many of our American soldiers and officials in Iraq. Nor do they show all the voting that’s taken place in the past two years in Iraq, including voting by Muslim women!

This kind of one-sided, propagandistic filmmaking is more than just factually false and abhorrent. It is positively demonic. It also is a clear example of an attempt to ridicule and demonize America’s brave men and women in the military fighting for liberty, justice, mercy, and compassion. Regrettably, many people have already succumbed to the manipulative falsehoods, irrational arguments and anti-American hatred reflected in this documentary.

There may be valid reasons to argue against the current Iraq War and to argue in favor of reforming the American government’s system of awarding defense contracts, but WHY WE FIGHT is simply a hateful, anti-American left-wing propaganda movie that gives aid and comfort to Communists, Islamic terrorists and other murderous fascists. Anyone who praises it is a willfully ignorant fool.

The Good News, however, is that many fools have come to find truth, strength, love, and joy in Jesus Christ; and, many useful idiots in the neo-fascist Communist movement infecting the world and many liberal, left-wing organizations have seen the light and become true patriots fighting for truth, justice and goodness. There are also some former supporters of Islamic terrorism who have done so.

The best way to help these misguided people is to spread the truth, not only by spreading the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also by spreading the historical and philosophical truth concerning moral, social and political issues. This is exactly what donors to MOVIEGUIDE®, your family guide to movies and entertainment (www.movieguide.org), do when they send MOVIEGUIDE® their gifts. Spreading the truth of the Gospel, and spreading the truth about moral, social and political issues, is why we continue to fight.