War, Inc: Cusack's Savage Satire Strikes a Chord with Soldiers and Their Families
This post originally ran during War, Inc's theatrical run. It has just been released on DVD.
"Whose top advisers are linked to war profiteers?" asks John Cusack in a new TV ad linking John McCain and George Bush ("Both...Bet you can't tell them apart"). The ad, produced by MoveOn.org, starts airing today and is already being passed around the Internet.
Cusack's righteous rage over the billions being pocketed in Iraq by companies like Blackwater, Halliburton, and Bechtel is the beating heart of his brilliant War Inc. The film, a corrosive, audaciously funny takedown of the Right's push toward privatized war, has become a surprise, grassroots-driven hit -- despite having almost no ad money behind it.
I saw the film before it was finished, and even before the final edit, the music, etc., I was overwhelmed by how it captured the insanity going on in Iraq. War Inc. has pulled off the near-impossible: it has a found a savage, reality-altering humor amidst the tragedy of Iraq.
It masterfully wields my favorite creative weapon: satire. It punches you in the gut, making you laugh, wince, and become outraged all at the same time. Naomi Klein rightly calls War, Inc. "one of those rare satires with the danger left in."
Political satire designed to confront the powers-that-be with painful truths and to produce not just laughs but change is rarely seen in today's multiplexes. And that's not surprising; it's a high-wire act few even dare to attempt. But when someone does and succeeds at it -- think Stanley Kubrick, Paddy Chayefsky, Joseph Heller, Billy Wilder -- the effect is indelible.
Lewis Lapham identified the satirist's project as "the crime of arson, meaning to set a torch of words to the hospitality tents of pompous and self-righteous cant." And that great satirical arsonist Mark Twain wrote that exposure to good satire made citizens less likely to be "shriveled into sheep."
The great satirists have always been passionate reformers challenging the status quo. "Sometimes," says Paul Krassner, whose satiric and radical journalism inspired Cusack and his co-creators, "humor is just a way of calling attention to the contradictions or the hypocrisy that's going on officially. ... That's the function of humor -- it can alter your reality." Which is exactly what War, Inc. does.
When in 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote the most famous work of political satire of all time, "A Modest Proposal," he was seeking to light a fire under the indifference toward the twin Irish crises of hunger and over-population. His proposal was to feed young children to hungry men. "I have been assured," he wrote, "that a young healthy child, well-nursed, is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout."
You can imagine the blowback from those who failed to grasp the satiric point Swift was trying to make. Similarly, the satire-challenged Right has tried to attack Cusack and War, Inc. as (all together now) unpatriotic and a slam on American troops. They've also gotten their knickers in a twist, outraged that someone would try to find humor in the death and suffering of U.S. soldiers.
But Cusack's targets are not our troops but private military contractors, war profiteers, and flag-waving politicians who, as Cusack puts it, support "keeping our troops in harm's way in Iraq but not the bipartisan G.I. bill of rights to support them when they return home." (And, yes, he's talking about you, Messrs Bush and McCain).
Indeed, since the film's release Cusack has received many moving emails and postings on his MySpace page from soldiers and military family members supporting the film and its message. Their missives run from disappointment to disillusionment and fury over being asked to serve and sacrifice while mercenaries are better paid -- and often better treated.
Among the emails:
From Sgt. Brent Sammann, an active-duty soldier in the US Army:
(Click for full-size image --
check out the two flags)
I'm a first-hand witness to the exploitation by KBR and other companies lending their services to the war effort -- services us soldiers are fully capable of doing ourselves.... The military is being overcharged by these companies on a regular basis. Also, the poor service and treatment we get from some of their employees who make three times as much as those of us serving our country that are not in it for the money but are trying to make the world a better place for everyone.
From SPC (P) Johnny Rhodes in 3/2 SCR Infantry based in Diyala, Iraq:
After being awake for 3 days I may be a little bit out of it, so excuse any rambling or incoherence on my part. Off the top of my head, I can easily say that KBR in particular is of no help here in my area of Iraq. They do, jobs soldiers could do, get paid way better for it, but the work is almost always substandard.... at any given time there are hordes of these guys tying up the phones and internet, cramming the chow hall, etc. Which makes the soldiers have to wait. And wait. And wait. They also paid way more than me, for a job, I could do with my eyes closed.
From Brenda Clampitt, of Baton Rouge, LA, the wife of a soldier stationed at Camp Adder in Tallil, Iraq:
[My husband] drives the trucks and Humvees and escorts the KBR around where they need to go. He doesn't understand why they get paid way more then he does when [he and his fellow soldiers] are the ones doing the protecting, and are the ones getting shot at and blown up. He has seen soldiers die in front of him; he has seen lives destroyed and the country torn apart. My husband would serve his country whether he got paid or not, that is just how he is. He loves his country and wants to protect it but he sees first hand what is going on over there and he doesn't like it.... I myself am sick and tired of this war. It is dragging on and on and it is all about the money. I am not anti war. But I am FOR everything your movie is about.
Today's lead editorial in the New York Times, titled "Interrogation for Profit," decries "one of the Bush administration's most blatant evasions of accountability in Iraq -- the outsourcing of war detainees' interrogation to mercenary private contractors" and calls on Congress to approve "measures to make war-zone contractors liable for criminal behavior." The editorial concludes: "The way out of the Iraq fiasco must include an end to the outsourced shadow armies."
This indictment has the same urgency of War Inc. Especially with John McCain reminding us that it's "not that important" to him when our troops come home.
Click here to watch a new interview with Cusack in which he talks about War, Inc, war profiteering and the McCain campaign's race-baiting.
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
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I've seen the film and let me just say... pure genius. It got its point across while entertaining. It has just the right amount of satire to make a serious, important problem something that we can all chuckle at.
Question for all: If we have the majority of the US people wanting us out of Iraq, the majority of the people in Iraq wanting us out, the iraq government wanting us out, the majority of world leaders from other countries wanting us out., a future president succesfully campaigning on getting us out as soon as possible. It is clear to everyone that we will, or quite possibly will, be getting out of Iraq soon. The people in Iraq know this. Given that the reduction in violence in Iraq started before "the Surge" , isn't it likely that this talk of us leaving had more to do with the drop in violence than anything else. Knowing that we will leave soon, why sacrifice your life attacking the troops? If our presence there is creating increased violence (as most in Iraq agree) isn't it logical to assume that our plans and talk of leaving is more responsible for the "sucess" than the surge in troop levels has?
You are too logical by far. (That's a "yes" by the way).
Exactly.
Oh, wow. You're talking SENSE. I ... I ... I just don't know how to respond!
Leaving has never been and option. Bush and Co. have always had in mind permanent bases there and recent events bear that out. Sometime go to one of the Map websites and type in Iraq, then go to satellite view. What you will find in the western part of Iraq is a huge Airbase. You can't miss it. It has one runway that is so huge that as least three B-52s could taxi on it side by side. Why would it be there if not meant for some "grand" purpose.
The bush regime has been planning a "theater of wars" (their term) for years. As soon as bush was sworn into office, the neocons started focusing on their plans for worldwide domination through military force. They decided to start with Iraq because they thought it would be the easiest to take down. But after 10 years of peace, they had to convince Congress of the need to substantially increase military "defense" spending, and they wanted the support of the People.
They wanted to be able to fight 3 or 4 large wars and several smaller "conflicts" worldwide all at the same time--their "theaters of wars." Congress was not persuaded and refused them their large defense spending package as there were no military threats against us to justify it.
And then along came 9/11. "Coincidence?" These attacks convinced a panicked Congress to give everything he wanted without question. Rumsfeld stated, the 9/11 attacks "created possibilit
The bush regime never intended to leave Iraq and that's why we're still there, and in Afghanistan, and now they are attempting to cultivate another war with Iran.
We simply must stop these traitors and bring them to justice.
If I were the government, I would transfer the holistic war to private industry..
And send the bill to Iraq, not to American taxpayers.
Thanks, Arianna, for recommending this satirical Cusack film. I've always enjoyed his brand of comedy. IMHO Sam Clemens is one of the world's greatest satirists in history, which is why he was often labelled racist for his novel, "Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn" since too many Americans took his storyline seriously. Swift was also satirically brilliant in his novel, "Gulliver's Travels" in which a horse calls humans "yahoos" because of our superiority complex. You can add to this witty satire mocking anthropocentrism the film, "Men in Black," when a bulldog tells Tommy Lee Jones' character that humans always think we're better than other animals based on size in order to boost our self-esteem as a species. I'd also argue that most brilliant satire that rocking the boat of status quo mentality usually receives the least (or most condescending) attention by the MSM b/c it threatens their profit margin. Heaven forbid the military industrial complex, which controls the major media in this nation (witness GE owning NBC, Westinghouse owning CBS, Disney owning ABC) have any hindrance to their shareholders' wealth. All these heinous criminals must be held accountable for profiting at the expense of human, planetary, civil, women's and of course animals' rights. Forget about a 75% profit tax. I'd say tax these motherf***ers' out of business altogether. As George Carlin says about church officials, "let `em pay their admission fee!" They deserve to feel the same agony as their worldwide victims. It's time we level this playing field!
On target as usual. Cusack and Huffington are both American patriots. Thank you.
You know...Ari
We are now winning the war & it doesn't make much sense to pull out when we're winning. McCain has two sons who served in Iraq & one of them is either there or going back & with his background he knos about suffering & the sacrifices that soldiers make for their country.
Define what you mean when you say "winning" the war.
Winning the war means refuseing to admit your mistakes. You have not commited the biggest blunder in AMerican history as long as you keep the Win loss debate going. Image is more imprtant to these people than realty. As long as they continue to lie and deny, there is no loss.
They remind me of Bagdab Bob from the gulf war, insisting that there was no attack as the bombs went off around him on live television. They have been claiming to be winning fo rht last 6 years, each time they are found to be lieing they just restate their claim and THIS TIME they really, really, really, really, really, really, think we are winning.
Right, "mission accomplished", yet again. I have a nephew who went to Iraq as a Marine. Went in as a nice conservative but caring young man, who was sure he was doing the right thing for his country. After two tours and receiving many accolades he did not extend his contract and went to grad school instead. When I asked him about his experience, he told me "Read the book 'Fiasco', it's all there". Mr. Reine clearly does not understand the first thing about urban warfare. First, this is not a war, but an occupation. Second, if the occupied stop shooting, it simply means they're just waiting it out like, the Indians did with the British. Unless, of course, we have by now won the "hearths and minds" of the Iraqis. Anyone who believes that?
Reine, you and John McCain are welcome to your opinions. Here's mine in the proverbial nut shell: No oil under the soil-No American blood shed on that soil. It's all about greed. It has nothing to do with WMD's, democracy, patriotism or fill-in-the-blank. The only war in Iraq is a civil war that has been fought by Muslims against each other for many centuries. There is NOTHING for us to win. We can only continue to LOSE our sons and daughters on the altar of money worshiping.
What are we winning? What is winning? We attacked a nation that did nothing to us. We murdered thousands ( estimated over 90,000) of their citizens for no valid reason. We destroyed cities, displaced unknown numbers of people ( five plus million) and disrupted the balance of power in the Middle East. How do you even think that there is a possibility of anything worthwhile coming from this? The whole thing is insane and staying there doesn't make it better. We cannot do much about what the current administration has done in Iraq but we can change our government and try to stop this carnage as soon as possible.
Hey Reine--do YOU happen to own any stock in at least one of the following companies?
Halliburton
Lockheed Martin
General Electric
Honeywell
Raytheon
General Dynamics
Boeing
Northrop Grumman
United Technologies
Time Warner
Disney
Viacom
News Corporation
Let me remind you of this ancient phrase from the Bible: NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS. That is, you cannot serve both your fellow countrymen and HUGE PILES OF $$$$. Furthermore, if you honestly think "More Wars" McCain's sons are really deployed in a combat zone in Iraq, then you must also think that pigs can fly.
In other words the film is gonna bomb at the box office.
Who cares when you can watch it online for free! Millions will see it! The reality of what is happening is better than any movie anyway! Leave your gullibility at the door...
It was a really good movie though.
You're right. That's way more important than the point Cusack is making.
You are too kind Arianna, referring Bush- Chenney as Mssers, I could find more appropriate adjetives which fit their kind.
I can't wait to see this movie after all, the war in Iraq has been a tragic-comedy .
Great comment, Arianna. Recall that Swift wrote his masterpiece "Modest Proposal" in... 1729. And realize that Ireland's "Great Famine", almost 1 million Irish men, women and children perished of famine and related diseases - didn't happen until the late 1840s.... And that at the height of the famine, English (and their promoted Irish estate holders) absentee landlords were _exporting_ grain from Ireland, citing "free market capitalism" and racial inferiority as the reasons it was not England's duty to assist famine victims. (Some of the London Times less restrained opinion pieces apologizing for England's neglect and role in the famine makes for shocking reading, even today.)
What is important is that, thanks to Swift's literary maserpiece, we know beyond doubt that England had a view of genocidal scorn towards Ireland... for well over 100 years, from at least 1729 to 1850s!
While Victorian England promoted itself as the champion of "moral values" and virtue, Queen Victoria's ministers were overseeing famine in Ireland, and acting as drug pushers forcing China to import opium during the Opium War in China.
Following the money is a good way to know how we got into this mess in Iraq, Cheney should have been impeached in 2003. Look who Benefited from this war is sure was not the American Tax payer
Shouldda-w
What does Pelosi get in return for her stance of impeachment being "off the table?"
What do you think?
As I read your words this morning, Ariana, I'm reminded that what the American people so detest about this war is the corruption, malfeasance, cruelty, and senslessness of the war. It's important in this election that the people are reminded not only why the choice to go to Iraq was so flawed in the first place but how the administration has cynically made Iraq into an experimental petri dish for privatized supply side experiements resulting in the ripping off of the American tax payer by mega corporations tied to the Bush-Cheney cabal. They also need to be reminded of the 2005 Meet the Press Interview where John McCain essentially says that he and Bush are one in thought and policy.
If people are sick and tired of this administration and its policies its time for them to vote in a new Democratic administration.
Can I ask what proof of corruption, malfeasance, cruelty, and senselessness you claim to hold in your posession as facts?
thanks
If you have to ask, you're not going to be persuaded by facts anyway.
Just follow the news once in a while even though the media has been negligent and cowardly has not shown what really is going on with this administration. Billions of dollars from the killing and suffereing of millions of people, wasting 5 trillion dollars of surplus and giving US a 3.5 trillion dollars of deficit , it is all the things you want prove of
http://en.
http://en.
http://www
http://www
"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged at a congressional hearing Thursday that her department had serious problems overseeing its largest contracts in Iraq.
One of the problems: The State Department official managing a $1.2 billion contract to train Iraqi police didn't keep a complete file for the contract, Rice told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen said this week that the records were so incomplete his office had to suspend its audit of the contract."
http://www
"The flurry of activity resulted from investigations overseen by a Justice Department task force set up last fall to target corruption in the $44.5 billion Iraq reconstruction program.
Corruption in Iraq — dubbed the "second insurgency" by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) — has been the target of numerous congressional hearings critical of the slow pace of prosecutions. Pentagon auditors have questioned $4 billion in contractors' bills for work in Iraq. So far, 29 people have been charged or convicted, seven in July. "
Read the new Senate report and Scott McClellan's book sweetie. And WAKE UP this is the most corrupt administration in history and they care nothing about you, regular Americans or our troops.
Wow. Clearly you have been asleep the past 7 years. Perhaps you have been simply getting your news from the Drudge Report or Fox News, which is pretty much the same thing. There have been more articles and books written that prove corruption, malfesance, cruelty and senselessness of the Bush Administration, which would make it impossible to post them all here. I suggest Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse or Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Both books document the above in detail and how the Neo-Cons have personally profitted from it. Don't forget to google photos taken at Abu Grahib that show acts of torture and cruelty. Continue reading the Huffington Post and other non main stream media outlets for real news in the future. None of the above will come as a shock to you any longer.
Reviews seem negatively unanimous.
This subject deserves serious humor begining with the Hunting Down of a President (who ballanced the budget) by conservatives. Found innoceent for countless erroneous things but not reported by MSM.
On to his impeachement for telling a lie about betraying his wife, by a bunch of Republican adulterers.
Theft of election, by same cast of characters. Claiming their C student won (against his civil rights to recount the votes).
Next chapter: 2 C Students. One left his state bankrupt, the other -- who as CEO of Haliburton showed his totallitarian tendacies refusing to leave Burma against share holder wishes (In 1980s White House run by Bectel, Reagan slept every afternoon and confused Movie Plots w/History)
"Conservative" adoration of reinvented Reagan who together w/Bus1 left $389B deficit..
This sets the stage for Bush voters wanting to have a beer with this alcohilic.
Kerry and Hillary having voted for INSPECTORS Betrayed bY No Nuance Infomercialist in Chief
As Ground Hog's day begins w/1990s Republicans style vitriol spewed by The Nations which gets its "new" from Chris Russert and Tim Mathews...
.
I saw the movie and enjoyed it a lot. Of course, it was only when I realized it wasn't going to be a GOOD FILM, per se, that I relaxed and let myself have a rollicking good time with it -- as the cast and director seemed to do. (My wife thought it was "like a student film but without the depth," but even she laughed from time-to-ti
Since you are so concerned by grades, you forgot to mention that Kerry had a lower GPA than Bush at Yale.
I always liked Cusack. Now I really like him. Can't wait to see his film.
Let's hope for further emphasis Naomi Klein can get her book "The Shock Doctrine" made into a documentary mini-series next, as that would certainly be a shock. To only Americans of course.
The truth shall set us free...ple
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