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Brisk, intelligent and very human, this fascinating study of the build-up to the Iraq war examines the forces- economic, political and ideological- that drive American militarism.
On January 17, 1961, in his farewell speech to the nation President Dwight Eisenhower issued a caveat to the American people that ‘unwarranted influence’ was being acquired by “a permanent arms industry of vast proportions.” Calling it the American Military Industrial Complex, Eisenhower sounded a solemn alarm. The US now spends more on defence than the total sum allocated to all other spending sectors.
Combining up-to-the-minute testimony from a range of insiders and luminaries with impeccable historical research, Eugene Jarecki’s insightful film follows the personal stories of a group of characters in America’s military family. They are its soldiers and its victims, its dreamers and its disillusioned.