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'Why We Fight': Bloodshed is good business

If Americans increasingly wonder why we are engaged in combat in Iraq, documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki points out that we have been in such a national quandary before and are likely to be so again.

Sony Pictures Classics 'Why We Fight' B+ The verdict: A persuasive, though cynical, examination of America's propensity toward warfare for profit. Director: Eugene Jarecki Cast: John S.D. Eisenhower, Chalmers Johnson, William Kristol, John McCain Run time: 98 minutes Release date: Jan. 20, 2006 Rating: PG-13 for disturbing war images and brief language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate 'Why We Fight'   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

In his low-key, but distinctly left-leaning Why We Fight, he argues that war is simply a natural outgrowth of our way of life and beneficial to the military-industrial complex that Dwight Eisenhower warned against as he was vacating the White House.

Jarecki (The Trials of Henry Kissinger) contends that it is to our economic benefit to go to war, but that is a hard notion to sell to the American public when its young men and women are the collateral damage of such a business decision. So instead, in Vietnam and Iraq, we wave the flag and talk about the importance of spreading freedom. And if it takes a lie or two, like the Gulf of Tonkin attack or the stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, so be it.

In addition to the usual talking heads on both sides of the political fence — Gore Vidal to the left, William Kristol to the right — Jarecki finds some compelling personal stories to illustrate his film. Most notable is a burly New York City policeman named Wilton Sekzer, an average guy — and Vietnam vet — raised to love his country and respect the office of the president. When his son dies in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he is not only eager to see the United States exact revenge — on one country or another — but he goes through government channels to have his son's name painted on a bomb to be dropped on Iraq. When President Bush concedes on the air that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks in New York, Sekzer's confused anger is seismic.

Almost as compelling is a young man named William Solomon, squeezed financially, who sees a way out of his predicament through military service. Taken under his wing by an army recruiter, Solomon signs up and heads off to basic training, presumably to be swallowed up by the war machine.

Jarecki roves with his camera, asking those on the streets of New York why we are in Iraq and receives a spectrum of responses, from assurances of the importance of the mission to puzzled looks. Broadening his lens, the filmmaker takes aim at Washington's think tanks, those generators of talking points that he suggests is a fourth prong in the war machine, after the military, industry and Congress.

Jarecki certainly takes a more journalistic approach than Michael Moore did in Fahrenheit 9/11, with a barrage of well-researched archival footage and a long view of historical linkage. One of the more ironic ties to World War II is the film's title, which is borrowed from a series of pro-war government propaganda films made by Frank Capra.

Why We Fight, which won last year's Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, is propaganda, too, but a far more sophisticated sort that builds an unnerving case for the inevitability of war.

It leaves little room for a viewer to mobilize into action, except for pulling the covers over your head and waiting for the next momentary truce between wars.