Friday, April 03, 2009

The American Way of War.



part 2.



Part 3.



Eugene Jarecki is an award-winning dramatic and documentary filmmaker whose previous film WHY WE FIGHT won the 2005 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER, won the 2002 Amnesty International Award. In addition to his work in film, Jarecki is also the Founder and Executive Director of The Eisenhower Project, an academic public policy group, dedicated in the spirit of Dwight D. Eisenhower, to studying the forces that shape American foreign policy.

5 comments:

nunya said...

Top twenty books and movies for me in the last 6 years Tuesday, August 21, 2007

I suffer from depression, but at least I know the truth. *sigh*

nunya said...

My two prized possessions are signed copies of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire" and "Nemesis" He's professor emeritus at UCSD. He lives very close to Francine Busby and I volunteered on her campaign against Dukie Cunningham in '04. Cunningham sent me a form letter that basically nicely said "buzz off" I'm with the bible thumpers on this one when I wrote and asked if he would support family planning funding. I was pissed off.

Cunningham is in jail because he was stupid. They're all corrupt. Jarecki and Johnson opened my eyes to the system.

Kel said...

Nunya,

I was pleased that so many of your favourites would also feature on my list. Corporation and Confessions of an Economic Hitman are also amongst my favourites. I am not aware of The Sorrows of Empire, but I will try and track it down.

nunya said...

Thank you. It ripped my heart to shreds because I was born and raised in a town that is basically one big military base, interspersed with "dual use" corporations that sell stuff to the military.

You can't help but have a love-hate relationship with the military when it provides jobs and the "safety net" of social welfare programs in the country is a joke.

Keep in mind that the official govt unemployment rate does not count people who's unemployment ran out and they gave up looking for work.

Also keep in mind that people will do jobs that they hate because the job offers health insurance.

I hear that in Europe the government is afraid of the people, and in the US the people are afraid of the government.

Maybe you can tell me about the first part of that statement, and I can tell you that the second is true.

Kel said...

I hear that in Europe the government is afraid of the people, and in the US the people are afraid of the government.

I actually think there is just as much apathy here as there is in the US, Nunya. However, when the people get incensed they do take to the streets and it does worry politicians.

In many ways it was the grey haired ladies of Tunbridge Wells who brought down Thatcher as the minute they started marching against the poll tax the Tories panicked thinking, "If we've lost Tunbridge Wells we're doomed."

Likewise, Blair was certainly shaken by the two million of us who took to the streets before the start of the Iraq war.

I think the main difference between the two populaces comes down to cynicism. I find people in the US tend to believe what their government says much more than we do.

Of course a lot of this comes down to the fact that our Prime Minister has to face the opposition at Prime Ministers Questions every week, which is quite gladiatorial. And I think the opposition questioning the motives of the Prime Minister gives the public the right to do the same.

In your system that role seems to have been assigned to the press during presidential press conferences and, as we saw prior to the Iraq war, they are pretty abysmal at carrying out that function. Indeed, some of them, like David Gregory, appear not to even accept that this function is theirs.

If Gregory could see the gladiatorial style of someone like Paxman, he would hang his head in shame.