Re: [Futurework] More on U$A inc.

[Darryl and Natalia]

All mail scanned by NAV   Thanks for bringing this up, Ed. I had scribbled some notes, and was hoping to look up the spelling of Jarecki before posting something, then forgot...   Wednesday's CBC Radio's edition of The Current featured an interview with Why We Fight film director Eugene Jarecki. There are a few points he raised that should be added to the NYT review of the Sundance Film Festival winner, and, I felt, some points I wanted to raise relevant to the Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan.    As mentioned below, Eisenhower had a fear of conflict of interests becoming reality with regard to military industrial sectors' concerns vs. those of responsible governance. Cited as a clear example is the fact that Bush selected 32 members from military industry to serve in his administration, thereby unleashing heavy-handed administrative influence. It's up to government to correct that tilt. Jarecki feels that the big message of the film is that capitalism and democracy are not interchangeable.   Out on the streets, Jarecki interviews US citizens, asking why we go to war. The most common response is "freedom", yet most every reply is mixed with a certain amount of doubt, whether it be that they add, "I guess", or that they respond with a question mark in their delivery.   The example of Wilton Sekzor, whose son died in the 9/11 attack, portrays, in my view, not just an individual's anguish over loss and betrayal, but amazingly still the 21st century human emotional and intellectual condition. Here was a guy who managed to get his son's name put on one of the bombs that were released (in all likelihood) on Iraqi women and children,  and then learns his government deceived the nation again, thereby casting doubt on his vengeful fantasies and expressions. He can now project blame and guilt on the Bush administration for manipulating his grief and patriotism, but the real question is whether or not he will be inclined to reassess his own vicious need for revenge. Will he now consider that anger can never bring about sane thought? That what you do unto others, you do unto yourself?   I have grave concerns for Canada, with the advent of new prime minister Stephen Harper's expanding military budget and Canada's increasing role in Afghanistan, sensationalism will stoke the mediacracy to print ever more pro-war propaganda. With every new soldier killed, Canadians will be convinced that terrorists are a paramount threat to our safety. There is no current threat, but if Cdn op's are increased, there will be little to distinguish their purpose (and behaviour) from that of the US teams they have joined. A greater military presence there will put our nation at risk of becoming a terrorist target. It's as though, in voting in this pro-warring PM, that Canadians forgot about the Bush administration's deceit altogether.   War is the traditional easy response, the one that those who invest in it want us to get excited about. Keeping the people in a chronic state of fear is exactly how it's done, and we are reminded that Republicans do not own the copyright on war. Historically, it's been the Dem's.   Sagely, Jarecki conveys that dialogue/communication is the real victory. I can't agree more.   Natalia Kuzmyn       ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Weick To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Futurework Sent: Monday, February 27, 2006 7:07 AM Subject: [Futurework] More on U$A inc. No comment needed.   Ed     February 27, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist Ike Saw It Coming By BOB HERBERT Early in the documentary film "Why We Fight," Wilton Sekzer, a retired New York City police officer whose son was killed in the World Trade Center attack, describes his personal feelings in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. "Somebody had to pay for this," he says. "Somebody had to pay for 9/11. ... I wanna see their bodies stacked up for what they did. For taking my son." Lost in the agony of his grief, Mr. Sekzer wanted revenge. He wanted the government to go after the bad guys, and when the government said the bad guys were in Iraq, he didn't argue. For most of his life Mr. Sekzer was a patriot straight out of central casting. His view was always "If the bugle calls, you go." When he was 21 he was a gunner on a helicopter in Vietnam. He didn't question his country's motives. He was more than willing to place his trust in the leadership of the nation he loved. "Why We Fight," a thoughtful, first-rate movie directed by Eugene Jarecki, is largely about how misplaced that trust has become. The central figure in the film is not Mr. Jarecki, but Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican president who had been the supreme Allied commander in Europe in World War II, and who famously warned us at the end of his second term about the profound danger inherent in the rise of the military-industrial complex. Ike warned us, but we didn't listen. That's the theme the movie explores. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to a national television and radio audience in January 1961. "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience," he said. He recognized that this development was essential to the defense of the nation. But he warned that "we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications." "The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist," he said. "We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." It was as if this president, who understood war as well or better than any American who ever lived, were somehow able to peer into the future and see the tail of the military-industrial complex wagging the dog of American life, with inevitably disastrous consequences. The endless billions to be reaped from the horrors of war are a perennial incentive to invest in the war machine and to keep those wars a-coming. "His words have unfortunately come true," says Senator John McCain in the film. "He was worried that priorities are set by what benefits corporations as opposed to what benefits the country." The way you keep the wars coming is to keep the populace in a state of perpetual fear. That allows you to continue the insane feeding of the military-industrial complex at the expense of the rest of the nation's needs. "Before long," said Mr. Jarecki in an interview, "the military ends up so overempowered that the rest of your national life has been allowed to atrophy." In one of the great deceptive maneuvers in U.S. history, the military-industrial complex (with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as chairman and C.E.O., respectively) took its eye off the real enemy in Afghanistan and launched the pointless but far more remunerative war in Iraq. If you want to get a chill, just consider the tragic chaos in present-day Iraq (seven G.I.'s were killed on the day I went to see "Why We Fight") and then listen to Susan Eisenhower in the film recalling a quotation attributed to her grandfather: "God help this country when somebody sits at this desk who doesn't know as much about the military as I do." The military-industrial complex has become so pervasive that it is now, as one of the figures in the movie notes, all but invisible. Its missions and priorities are poorly understood by most Americans, and frequently counter to their interests. Near the end of the movie, Mr. Sekzer, the New York cop who lost his son on Sept. 11, describes his reaction to President Bush's belated acknowledgment that "we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved" in the Sept. 11 attacks. "What the hell did we go in there for?" Mr. Sekzer asks. Unable to hide his bitterness, he says: "The government exploited my feelings of patriotism, of a deep desire for revenge for what happened to my son. But I was so insane with wanting to get even, I was willing to believe anything." _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework

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