TWN has posted a number of items about the depiction of John McCain in the Sundance Festival award-winning film by Eugene Jarecki, Why We Fight.
I think McCain comes off as the Eisenhower-ian hero of the film, but there are tensions that have brewed up between McCain’s office and the director regarding whether the film implies too much distance between the Senator and those in the Bush administration at the helm of the military-industrial complex.
So, some truth in advertising.
I like the film — though I wish that Jarecki had not included Gore Vidal’s voice and had edited out some of the more sweeping generalizations about the “American empire” and contrived threats in the world made by Chuck Lewis. These are honest differences, but I think that the film has a very important message — relevant to the struggles of this nation today to match resources and will against genuine rather than contrived contingencies — and people should see it.
I do believe that McCain has been a key voice in the federal government for trying to do something about the structural corruption of the defense industry, military, and Congress — most evident recently in the Boeing Air Tanker deal which McCain helped squash. I also like Mark Salter and have known him since 1993, when Senator McCain was an Advisory Board I was affiliated with.
All that said, I wrote a post that elaborated on some of Mark Salter’s objections to the film and encouraged calmer discourse.
I believe in constructive debate, and fair play — and agreed to post Mark Salter’s objections to the Jarecki film here.
Now, back to New York. . .have a meeting shortly with someone in John Bolton’s world.
— Steve Clemons
