Hannah Ivey

3rd period Cooper

9/20/2014
Disclosed Fighting
Although the United States fights a vast number of wars, many Americans are unsure or
unaware of why the U.S. is really fighting. In the documentary, Why We Fight, directed by
Eugene Jarecki, he analyzes and compiles data that uniquely illustrates the many different
opinions that have been formed to aid and argue in favor of and against his opinions. Jarecki
argues that the ideals in which Americans believe they are fighting for have been tainted by the
governments inability to provide the American public with all the needed information to form an
individual opinion about an issue.
Jarecki wants to persuade his viewers to think more independently and to more actively
question the governments genuine motivation behind decisions in order to help avoid another
tragedy similar to 9/11 or the war in Iraq. He persuades his audience by providing relevant
examples of how the government is influencing the peoples thoughts and views. A common view
is that communication between the American public and the U.S. government is crucial in order
to form a more unified and trustworthy community. Jarecki exemplifies this view with an
interview in Why We Fight concerning the tactics that the United States uses to fight, it fights as
a nation because [they] perceive that it is in [their] interest to fight, according to Charles Lewis.
Lewis later states that only after the government has made the decision that they need to fight,
the government will advertise the war by using words such as freedom and other American
values and asking, who could be against these values? This advertising skill prevents
individual thinking by utilizing the peoples love for freedom and other values and causing the
people to shy away. These feelings do not go unnoticed, they can cause a precarious relationship
between the government and the people making true unification almost impossible.

Unification is an attribute that many Americans strongly believe in today. It was one of
the founding ideals of America and has allowed the U.S. to stand together in times of strife.
However, this ideal has not been upheld to its full extent. The miscommunication between the
people and authorities causes many to feel extremely divided and somewhat betrayed. New York
Police Department officer, Wilton Sekzer, whose son was killed in the 9/11 attacks, openly
expressed how immensely betrayed and deceived he felt when he discovered that the war in Iraq
had nothing to do with the attacks on the World Trade Center. Sekzer had asked that his sons
name be written on a bomb, however at the time he had no idea about the true intentions of the
war. The lack of information hindered Sekzers ability to make the choice he truly desired to
make. Once he was informed of these true intentions, he had no regret over the decision because
he was unaware of the mistake at the time, but Sekzer did admit that he felt sad. Many parents,
relatives, and friends felt the same way towards the information that was thrown at them about
the war in Iraq. The strategic withholding of information from the general American public
created some extremely unnecessary and unfavorable conditions for the entire nation ranging
from extreme distrust to the division of people.
Eugene Jarecki organizes the documentary in a way so that he is able to convey his
argument in an almost disgruntled manner by targeting Americans that may or may not agree
with his opinion on the government. Today, many Americans strongly believe in freedom and
unification. They are two of the founding ideals of America and have allowed the U.S. to stand
together in times of strife. Jarecki targets the general public of Americans by appealing to the
certain audience that agrees with him, and causing the opposite side to feel less knowledgable. In
the film Jarecki organizes the many interviews that he has to his advantage by placing the videos
in an order so that each person he agrees with, builds up an argument and then when an interview

is shown that disagrees with his argument Jarecki has already built up his own argument so
strongly that the other argument seems invalid.
Throughout time the government has continuously withheld information from the public
in order take action in a situation in a way that the government sees fit. These situations have too
often gone unnoticed and slipped under the radar. In Why We Fight Jarecki brings up many
factors to utilize ethos in his argument. For example, he uses interviews with extremely credible
people such as Richard Perle, the advisor of the U.S. Department of Defense as well as an
interview with Charles Lewis who was involved with the Center for Public Integrity. Each of
these men argue that there is always a reason behind war that the American public are not able to
see, the images and examples in the film bring up sending troops to Panama as well as Ronald
Reagan's invasion of Grenada in 1983, both of which were required ethos to make the point that
they were unnecessary. Jareckis useage of ethos allows the viewers to feel that he is well
informed about the subject and gives him more credibility as the director.
Although the living expenses have risen, Americas standards for fighting have decreased
dramatically since the Eisenhower days. The inability to think for oneself as well as the
unnecessary withholding of information by the government greatly contribute to the modern
falling of the American way of life. Many argue that America because the advancement of
technology and arms that war is okay much safer, however it is still taking the lives of many
innocent people. People not much different from Americans.

Works Cited
Why We Fight. Dir. Eugene Jarecki. Perf. Karen Kwiatkowski, Charles Lewis, Wilton Sekzer,
Richard Perle, and Ronald Reagan. Storyville, 2005. Youtube.