Tagline

It is nowhere written that the American empire goes on forever.

Plot Summary

Inspired by President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Address in which he warned Americans about the dangers of the “military-industrial complex,” filmmaker Jarecki (“The Trials of Henry Kissinger”) weaves unforgettable stories of everyday Americans touched by war with commentary by a “who’s who” of military and Washington insiders.

Featuring John McCain, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others, WHY WE FIGHT explores a half-century of U.S. foreign policy from World War II to the Iraq War, revealing how, as Eisenhower warned, political and corporate interests have become alarmingly entangled in the business of war. On a deeper level, what emerges is a portrait of a nation in transition – drifting dangerously far from her founding principles toward a more imperial and uncertain future.