Door County Activities: War Documentary Featured at UU Fellowship

Why We Fight will be shown March 17, 7 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County (UUFDC) as part of the Movies That Matter series. Winner of the 2005 Sundance Grand Jury Award, this documentary dissects America’s military machine and its industrial complex driven by corporate profit as President Eisenhower warned. Eisenhower referred to a structure that consisted of the military itself, the contractors and plants who produced the weapons, and the politicians who stood to reap the benefits of both.

Eugene Jarecki began making this film committed to our country, to a conventional patriotic view and discovered a deeper patriotism – one of tough love. With a willingness to look at the country critically and ask whether the decisions we are making are consistent with the principles we hold dear, Larecki found that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance and participation.

In one strand of his carefully woven tale, Jarecki observes how Eisenhower’s prediction has become a reality. Congress, Lockheed Martin, Haliburton and the branches of the military all benefit from increases in defense spending, and the argument goes, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." A country that spends more than half of its discretionary budget on a gigantic war machine will end up using that machine, one way or another, again and again. The military-industrial complex now encompasses lobbyists, think tanks and a complicit media that is happy to be "embedded" with the troops instead of attempting to find an independent point of view. The corrupt system that leads to perpetual war, according to Jarecki’s thesis, is now so pervasive that it’s becoming more or less invisible. To engage that system, Jarecki interviews people from all parts of the machinery.

Movies That Matter is an on-going project of the UU’s Social Responsibility Committee to bring contemporary issues of significance to the community. Films are followed by group discussion. All are free and open to the public. Next month’s film is The Corporation April 21. The UUFDC is located at 10341 Hwy. 42, Ephraim. For more information visit uufdc.org.