[lbo-talk] holy moly

[Sean Andrews]

> The premise is that the defense industry, but especially profit-hungry military
> contractors, drive America's imperialist adventures abroad. It uses
> Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" speech as its basis and situates Ike
> as an ignored Jeremiah.

I was reading William Appleman Williams' _Empire as a Way of Life_ and
Ike figures into his narrative in much the same way--as someone who
saw the problems developing but didn't quite have the charisma to turn
the tide.  I don't have the citation here, but it is an interesting
take on that period.  Not having been alive then (or, honestly, read
all that much about Ike) is this a really unfair characterization?

Just as a side note, John McCain is also a key figure in the film and
says a lot of things the neo-Cons would cringe at--not that it makes
him good, just better than them.  The contractors are only part of the
problem, of course, and it seems like Jarecki (the director) picks up
on a lot of the themes that Chalmers Johnson does in _Sorrows of
Empire_--namely that we're all implicated in one way or another with
this war making culture.  The contractors may be a big part of the
problem, but since the contracts they fill are also one of the few
consistent sources of US jobs, it becomes something we all benefit
from--and in some cases, push legislators to approve.

It still isn't perfect, of course, but it is still something I think
most US citizens would benefit from being reminded about.  I thought
it was supposed to get wider release here in the states. Is that the
case or did it just end up making another round on the torrent sites
(which is where I picked it up last summer or fall)?