i was rather suprised to find this on google video
but it is a very good docu

why we fight (BBC)

"I was going to try to look deep at the heart of America's predilection for war."
....Eugene Jarecki

And here I thought we were the good guys.

Once again, the fair-minded BBC has enlightened me to the error of my thinking.

You know, there were huge numbers of Americans that were of Germanic descent, so we must have been bloodthirsty to enter two wars against Germany.  Other than wanting to gang up on the German underdogs and spill lots of blood,  why would we send our youth across an ocean to kill.  Yep!  Americans have a predilection for war.

And, we went into the Pacific, pushing our weight around until Japan was forced to attack us... Hooray!  another front inwhich to have a war.  We love it!!  love it!  love it!

Then,  what in the world are we doing in Korea?  What did those people have against us.  We just love to kill people and throw our war machine around.

And what in the world were our troops doing in Germany at that Berlin wall?  All we were doing was trying to start an atomic war with Russia.  After all, we should have just given Europe to 'em...  Who cares anyhow.  That 'ole US is throwing its war machine around.

Then there is Vietnam.  Trying to fight communism by supporting a bad government.  Some would call it a stupid sacrifice for      
what we thought was a noble cause.  Nope!  We just love to pick fights and kill.

Finally there is Kuwait.  Who cares if Iraq invaded the country to take over middle eastern oil?  Who cares if we are finishing the fight now... All we want to do is make Islam mad so we can really start a world conflict.

The US, the great Satan.

Quote (dysfunctional @ June 11 2006, 9:19 pm)

"I was going to try to look deep at the heart of America's predilection for war." ....Eugene Jarecki And here I thought we were the good guys. Once again, the fair-minded BBC has enlightened me to the error of my thinking. You know, there were huge numbers of Americans that were of Germanic descent, so we must have been bloodthirsty to enter two wars against Germany.  Other than wanting to gang up on the German underdogs and spill lots of blood,  why would we send our youth across an ocean to kill.  Yep!  Americans have a predilection for war. And, we went into the Pacific, pushing our weight around until Japan was forced to attack us... Hooray!  another front inwhich to have a war.  We love it!!  love it!  love it! Then,  what in the world are we doing in Korea?  What did those people have against us.  We just love to kill people and throw our war machine around. And what in the world were our troops doing in Germany at that Berlin wall?  All we were doing was trying to start an atomic war with Russia.  After all, we should have just given Europe to 'em...  Who cares anyhow.  That 'ole US is throwing its war machine around. Then there is Vietnam.  Trying to fight communism by supporting a bad government.  Some would call it a stupid sacrifice for       what we thought was a noble cause.  Nope!  We just love to pick fights and kill. Finally there is Kuwait.  Who cares if Iraq invaded the country to take over middle eastern oil?  Who cares if we are finishing the fight now... All we want to do is make Islam mad so we can really start a world conflict. The US, the great Satan.

Um...anyway.

Nice video flix.

1 hour and 39 minutes long, Hmm looks like I wont be watching it till tomorrow.

FliX: I have used a few arguments from that movie in some discussions on this board

HRH: correct. It was never the intent of this documentary to question the motives of world war 1 and 2. On the contrary.
Obviously not everyone is able to understand the points Eugen Jarecki does.
He makes another point: The US citizenship is not bloodthirsty. On the other hand many military events since WW2 can be seen as a natural development if you look at the development of the industrial-military-congress complex.

I found the images with Rumsfeld and Saddam sitting on a couch and laughing very intriguing.
I especially liked Chalmers Johnson's quote:
"That's why cynics say: We know that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction because we still have the receipts for them"

"Power hungry, yes, but not blood thirsty."

All I see is the US having incurred massive expenses and loss of our young men, followed by a general lack of gratitude from the recipients of such sacrifices.


"HRH: correct. It was never the intent of this documentary to question the motives of world war 1 and 2. On the contrary.
Obviously not everyone is able to understand the points Eugen Jarecki does."

Ignoring world war 1 & 2 is convenient.  That reduces the snippet of time to be not worth assessing. And,
the author doesn't want to look too stupid about the liberation of Europe.  I posted the key quote at the beginning:

"I was going to try to look deep at the heart of America's predilection for war."
....Eugene Jarecki"

He simply wants to take Eisenhower's "military industrial complex" concept, ignore the time and place inwhich it was made and ignore all pertinent information that disproves his point in order to say the US has a predilection for war.  The Berlin airlift resulted from a continuous build up.... Reagan's bankrupting the USSR resulted from continuous build up (all at the expense of the US tax payer).  Let us not forget our ability to preserve South Korea (Oh, that's right it wasn't Europe so the sacrifice doesn't count).  

Now, let's look at the truth in a reasonable portion of history:   say, 13th century forward.  Now that is a reasonable amount of time in history from which we can draw conclusions about 'a people', wouldn't you say?

Three countries stand out:  France, England and Spain - all with a predilection for war as history shows.  And it shows it with enough of a span of time in order to prove the point.

Judging the US as having a penchant for war by its behavior from the second world war to the present is basically judging one generation.  Which is not a spit full of time.  Even if you attempted to judge the US, the conclusion would be that the US has a proclivity for sacrifice... nothing more.

its interesting to note the US stayed totaly out of foreign affairs till WW1

Quote (FliX @ June 12 2006, 3:27 pm)

its interesting to note the US stayed totaly out of foreign affairs till WW1

We were in fact isolationists and still not that far removed from a great civil war of our own.

And, we were a country of people from all of the countries that were fighting each other.

Finally, the decisions were made on reasons of principle and circumstance:  the Lucitania, lend-lease and Pearl Harbor.

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All I see is the US having incurred massive expenses and loss of our young men, followed by a general lack of gratitude from the recipients of such sacrifices.

no doubt, there are many sacrifices the US are making. I wonder though, whether these sacrifices actually serve a good purpose in those recent cases. I don't know, maybe it does in the long run, maybe something good will come from Iraq, after all. Listen, I don't see black even though many already compare iraq with vietnam.

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Ignoring world war 1 & 2 is convenient.  That reduces the snippet of time to be not worth assessing. And, the author doesn't want to look too stupid about the liberation of Europe.  I posted the key quote at the beginning:

The impression I got from this movie is that the author never questioned the justness of WW1 and WW2, as a matter of fact, I AM grateful for the liberation and recognize the need for these wars.

Quote

He simply wants to take Eisenhower's "military industrial complex" concept, ignore the time and place inwhich it was made and ignore all pertinent information that disproves his point in order to say the US has a predilection for war.  The Berlin airlift resulted from a continuous build up.... Reagan's bankrupting the USSR resulted from continuous build up (all at the expense of the US tax payer).  Let us not forget our ability to preserve South Korea (Oh, that's right it wasn't Europe so the sacrifice doesn't count).

Maybe the good sides you presented may have added to some balance, still the movie is trying to make a point and it won't do so by enumerating the successful and just interventions.
On the other hand, I haven't seen you lose one word about the criminal acts that clearly happened in the short-term interests of companies in the USA or the USA themselves, not the citizens of the respective countries.
The USA did deliver weapons to Saddam and Al-Quaeda in hopes to make them puppets against enemies. In Afghanistan, it was the russians. It was never thought about their ideology as long as they'd fight the evil ruskis.
In Iraq it was to fight the iranians that got a religiously extremist regime after the people overthrew another cruel regime that had been installed by the CIA. Have you forgot the images with Rumsfeld laughing on the bench with Saddam Hussein?
I question you: is that sane politics?
The movie makes the point that these events can be credited to unscrupulous individuals who come from the military industrial complex, and IMHO, this is a very good point that sounds reasonable. It is something wrong with how the system works, and if I were you, I'd be very very worried after seeing an analysis like this.

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Even if you attempted to judge the US, the conclusion would be that the US has a proclivity for sacrifice... nothing more.

Sorry but this sounds like unreflected neo-con propaganda.
Who sacrifices their lives for only the benefit of others?

Always surprised by dysfunctional post...

Always forgetting that the US is only 1/14 of the world population.

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And here I thought we were the good guys.

Yeah... And Germans under Hitler control also tought there were the good guys. Doing what was right.