Samantha Knaggs

Per. 5
9/17/14
AGS English 5
The Missile
There is a missile. Right there, aimed for whatever you prize.
Imagine this missile is revealed to the policy makers, senators and
think tanks of America, where would it be pointed, where or what is
their pressure point and what would a terrorist have to do to spark a
war with those American politicians? This missile, wherever it may be
aimed, would lead to immediate repercussions from the Americans, a
war, in order to protect those pressure points. Preemptive attack is
highly controversial as the defender would be the first aggressor, the
first to take offense, the first to actually attack and this sparks
vengeance and these sparks kindle the war, whether it may be on
terror, or on Iraq or on Nazism. In director Eugene Jareckis film, Why
We Fight, the film addresses the political, economic and social motives
in our nations past and present such as our imperialism, desire for
exports and the wealth they bring, and our wish to spread the
American ideals of democracy for our own benefits.
Empire, and our desire for it, drives one of the motives for the
fight. This motive is pushed and prodded with missiles, nukes and
automatic weapons in the hands of enemies who aim it towards us. But
if you could kick a missile over before it launched, wouldnt you?
That is the argument Richard Perle makes in Why We Fight defending
the preemptive attack that is so common in our war tactics. But what
would be the purpose of the missile, what was it launching towards?
Our empire, our drive for imperialism is what pushes our defensive
strikes to protect interests, whatever lands or materials they may be.
The use of preemptive attack allows for us to obtain more land, expand

our empire and imperialize, then it is once more up to use to decide

what to do with newly invaded territory.
Our interests, protecting the materials we desire in order to turn
over a profit, motivates wars that may seem to be battles over liberty
while in fact they may be over highly demanded exports. The natural
gas and oil industries in the Middle East have pulled Americans into
war in the region again and again in our nations past. William Kristol
speaks of Americas desire to police the world and that our
withdrawal would be our weakness, as we would loose valuable claims
to the lands obtaining our prized resources. The invasion of Iraq in the
years Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait were defended as necessary in
order to protect Kuwaits freedom from the dictator of the Iraqi nation,
while in fact, Americas prime interest was Kuwaits oil reserves. Even
in the present, our hunger for those industries has worried us in the
international conflicts endangering our imports of those countrys
exports; such as the Russian and Ukrainian conflict of 2014, with
Russia bringing sanctions on their oil to the West, motivating our
involvement in the issue beyond the bounds of our superpower
status.
However, our nation has not forsaken all of its humanity, we still
fight in order to spread our beliefs in democracy as we did in the time
of the Cold War. But, we do so in large, to our benefit. Our invasion of
Iraq in order to prevent their take-over of Kuwait did spread the idea of
democracy enough to today, Kuwait continues to maintain its
parliament. We tried once again proceeding 9/11 to establish
democratic governments with elected officials in Iraq and Afghanistan,
despite their eventual failings post-invasion. With the rise of the
Taliban, we failed, and with the rise of ISIS, we failed. This may prove
that despite our motivation for democracy to spread, it is not as strong
as our hunger for those profits and those territories gained from our
imperialistic invasions.

Why We Fight addresses these motives in order to enlighten our

populace and it does so using interviews from the views of Richard
Perle who works for the U.S department of defense and William Kristol
who maintains the Project for the New American Century. Our past and
our present, reveals to a studied citizen the motives behind our wars
and our battles. A terrorist cell inn the case of our imaginary missile,
need only aim their weapon of mass destruction upon oil reserves we
cherish, lands in which we monitor hungrily for our American seal to be
stamped or at our Congress, in which democracy is kept, to receive a
preemptive attack, and war.
Works Cited
Jarecki, Eugene. Dir. Why We Fight. Perf. Richard Perle. William Kristol.
Sony Classics. 2005. Youtube. Web. 9/15/14