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Mike Genovesi
Ms. Cooper
English
24 September 2014

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Every year, North Korean citizens will defect north into China, or south into South Korea. Most

of them flee because they were wanted by the government for committing a crime, had been on the brink
of starvation, wanted a better life for their family, or possibly wandered through the DMZ by accident.
Even though the reasons for fleeing will vary, whenever they are safe from the North Korean dictatorship
and being interviewed by their respective country, they are always shocked when they hear information
regarding their countries political history, foreign policy, and relations with other countries. They simply
cannot believe that their country started the Korean war, because all of their lives they had been told that
the South started it; its all they ever knew. The pure emotions of confusions, betrayal and shock that
North Koreans feel when told about their countrys true history is very similar to the feelings that many
Americans felt when finding out that the Iraqi war was not started for retaliation against the 9/11 attacks,
but instead for power and oil. While comparing the societies, conceptions and beliefs of the North Korean
and American people is unrealistic and unfair, there is certainly a similarity in that citizens of both
countries have made the mistake of trusting everything they hear from their governments as the truth, and
not second-guessing what they are told. Throughout the film Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki conveys
the harsh reality that Americans are being lied to when told that we fight for reasons such as equality,
liberty and freedom, and instead for motives such as world dominance and economic prosperity.
The truth, is that the American public is constantly lied to by its elected leaders. The idea that
presidents, senators and lawmakers are perfect, ethical people is absurd, to be frank. In fact, When going
to war, Presidents throw out terms such as freedom, things that no one can argue with (Jarecki), in order
to convince the American people that what theyre doing is right. America is built on core values, that

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everyone is aware of. Americans are proud to be free, and proud to have liberty. Were proud to call
ourselves American. We are proud of our history: our founding fathers creating this country based on a
certain set of positive ideals. Those ideals, such as freedom and equality, are being taken advantage of by
our leaders. Everything that the deep-rooted values of our country stand for is in vain when they are being
tossed around just so that the Military-Industrial complex is growing, and the United States has one less
enemy. After we understand that our leaders oftentimes lie, we can take a look at history through a cleaner
lens. For example, when George W. Bush announced that the United States was going to war, in his
opening sentences, he states At this hour, American and coalition forces are the early stages of military
operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger (Bush). In Why
We Fight, Jarecki alludes to the idea that the Iraq War was caused for reasons that had nothing to do with
defending the world from grave danger. Instead, Jarecki argues the Iraq war could've been caused to
keep the Military-Industrial complex alive and healthy, which is exactly what President Eisenhower
warned us all of in his farewell address. The Military-Industrial complex, Eisenhower and Jarecki
explain, is the system and collection of United States companies competing for money from the Defense
budget in order to create new weapons for them. These companies are located in every single state, which
means that the Military-Industrial complex provides jobs for thousands of people in the United States,
spread out between every state and region. This is crucial because the elected officials from each of those
states wouldnt dare vote against a single law going against creating new weapons, because that would be
the same as laying off workers from their state or district. Its a never-ending cycle of benefits between
the companies, lawmakers, general public and government. The overall point is that American leaders
will lie to the public about motives for going to war, because they know that if they told them the real
reasons, such as creating job growth, they would be out of office due to shock. This is what Jarecki
thoroughly describes in Why We Fight, and it leads to the next point of world dominance.
Since the World Wars, the United States has emerged as a global superpower. While Americans
will categorize the intimidating military and healthy defense budget as protecting the free world or
helping those in need, what has become apparent over the past years and what Eugene Jarecki describes in
his film, is that more often that not, the United States will look for wars to start, and enemies to destroy,

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rather than fighting for freedom, liberty or life. The U.S fights in order to preserve our rank as the
strongest country in the world. Unfortunately, the identity of the U.S has shifted from being one of
immigrants, equality, and acceptance, in the time of our founding fathers, to one that resembles the very
country that we fought for our independence against. What is the difference between the British troops
controlling American life back in the colonial times, and American troops controlling the Iraq and
Afghani way of life, in current times? The answer is none. The U.S has become exactly what so many
ingenious men in the colonial period warned against. During a speech made by John Quincy Adams, he
states: Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her
heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to
destroy (Adams). And Quincys warning to not search for monsters to destroy, can be seen over and over
in the foreign policy of todays U.S. Most recently, the U.S searched for a monster in the ISIS army, by
sending drone strikes onto suspected terrorist cells. The U.S, in its thirst for power, has created numerous
wars that should've never happened. Ending American lives, and her enemies alike. And Americans can
live with these affects, because we convince ourselves, and our leaders convince us, that we arent starting
wars in order to stay at the top of the world, and in order to take out a religious group, but instead because
we have the duty to preserve freedom and liberty throughout the world. Throughout Why We Fight,
Jarecki is able to articulate his point on America searching for foreign enemies by providing inside
government sources that attest to his argument, and by providing visuals such as a map of Asian
countries, and how many of them were affected by American forces and foreign policy. It was nearly all
of them.
During Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki provides his main idea and topic clearly, but during the
film you never realize what hes saying instantaneously. What Jarecki does, and brilliantly, is he slowly,
and steadily, gives the viewer his main idea, which is that Americans dont know what were fighting for.
If he were to say that from the beginning, people may turn off the film, or at least not be as convinced as
to what hes saying. But Jarecki hands the viewer his main idea on a silver platter, without them even
realizing it. They are sucked into the film and convinced of what hes saying by terms such as freedom,
and patriotism, that no American would dare disagree with. And he provides the viewer with reliable,

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credible testimonies that the audience can trust. While Jarecki interviews various senators, and
lawmakers, he also, and more importantly, interviews everyday people, that are easy to believe and listen
to. Such as Wilton Sekzer, who provides an emotional, trustworthy, understandable testimony of 9/11, the
Iraq War, and the U.Ss foreign policy. By making his main idea so accessible to any single viewer, he
leaves the window of audiences wide open. His intended audience, it seems, is all Americans. If you were
to sum up the whole film, in one sentence, its very possible that most people would be turned off by his
thoughts, but because of how he presents his ideas, he removes the constraint of his film being limited to
one certain demographic or generation.
Throughout Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki brilliantly evokes Pathos, or emotion, from the
audience. Because Jarecki knows that he is targeting Americans, he molds the testimonies, facts, and
stories included in order to have an affect on his specific audience. For example, one of the first
interviews in the film is of Wilton Sekzer, with Sekzer providing an account of 9/11, which his son
unfortunately died in. He describes looking up, and there [was] the building with smoke pouring out of
it (Jarecki, Sekzer). While Jarecki was most likely not intending on capitalizing off of Americans natural
emotions towards 9/11, he does a good job of provoking emotion. Most Americans have these built up,
deep feelings of hatred, sorrow, and resentment of 9/11 and those responsible for it. So by including a first
hand witness of 9/11, whose son also happened to die in the tragedy, Jarecki immediately touches a soft
spot in many of his viewers hearts. Another way Jarecki provokes emotion, is by interviewing people
twho live in the Middle East. He shows the audience examples of good people who live in places
occupied in part by terrorists. By doing this, he changes his viewers feelings of hate and resentment
toward a certain geography and area, such as Iraq, and instead just toward a certain type of people, such
as Al-Qaeda. This is an enormous accomplishment, because many Americans built up horrible feelings
toward Iraq as a whole, during the Iraq War. His use of Pathos helps and supports his main idea, because
he is disproving a common emotion that many Americans have, which then helps him to prove the notion
that Americans are unaware of why we fight.
All in all, in the film Why We Fight, Jarecki does an incredible job of providing alternate ideas
to things that many Americans might not have ever considered, myself included. Most Americans who

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were raised in the United States, went to school in the United States, and work in the United States, have
assumed things that arent necessarily true. For example Jarecki explains how numerous wars and deaths
have been caused not for reasons that we would like to believe. Jarecki explains how during World War II,
President Truman dropped the deadly, terrible atomic bombs in order to assert dominance over Japan, and
intimidate the Soviet Union. Jarecki explains that the Japanese had actually wanted, begged to sign a
peace treaty well before Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But most Americans, including myself, had probably
been under the impression the the U.S was forced to drop the bombs because we were scared for our
safety, and freedom. While America does do a lot of good in the world, like providing aid, education, and
military assistance when needed, the overarching idea that is displayed in Why We Fight is that we
dont fight for the same reasons that our founding fathers of the American Revolution fought for, and
probably think were fighting for. Jarecki provides that even though U.S does much good in the world, we
mainly fight for ideals such as Economic Prosperity, in our Military-Industrial complex, and Power, seen
in our numerous attacks on countries. By explaining these alternate theories to what was previously
thought by many Americans, Jarecki is able to open many eyes, and give his audience the power and
knowledge to look at history and present conditions of the world in a different way, for the better.

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Works Cited

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Jarecki, Eugene. Dir. Why We Fight. Perf. William Sekzer. Dwight D Eisenhower. Sony Classics. 2005.
Youtube. Web. September 24 2014

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Bush, George. Iraq War Adress. White House. 19 March 2003. War Address. September 24 2014

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Adams, John Quincy. Warning Against the Search for Monsters to Destroy. 4 July 1821. Foreign Policy
Speech. September 24 2014.

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