Fog of War: I kinda get why we go to war now...

I have to disagree with Noor, I liked this documentary more than I did Hearts and Minds...probably because it had a rigid structure, but also because it had these little pearls of wisdom that gave me epiphanies through out the movie. I like epiphanies. A lot.
For the first time I was seeing the origin of the mentality that many Americans have about the Vietnam War, and foreign policy in general.

My favorite quote from the documentary was Lemay's statement that "If we lost the war, we would all be persecuted as war criminals". It showed me that the United States was painfully aware of everything that was going down in Vietnam. Officials knew our soldiers were doing atrocious things to the people of Vietnam, and that Vietnam was being just as nasty, but they never did anything that suggested they were taking that into account. They plunged forward.

At one point, McNam says that "If we can't persuade nations about the merit of our cause...We'd better reexamine our reasoning." I feel like the people who go to war for us never do this. So many Americans seem to think that "flip-flopping" is a sign of weakness in a leader. If we're in a fix we always plunge forward instead of stopping to and rethinking strategy. There is this incredibly stupid attitude that we're 100% right 100% of the time and if you don't think so then you're the idiot who's wrong.

Another quote gave me a glimpse of why the USA insists on being a hero. I have always wondered why the hell we fight for other nations who often times don't neccesarily need our help. Who died and made us their savior? Especially during the Cold War, the United States felt personally responsible for the containment of communism. "...What'll happen to all the other little nations?" is our attitude.
One Vietnamese official said that "They [the Vietnamese] were fighting for their independence, and you [Americans] were fighting to enslave us". The United States tries to be that kid on the playground who's everyone's friend, but somehow always manage to end up being the kid who steals lunch money instead.

This documentary was awesome in my book. Whether it was the directors intent or not, the thinking that backs reasons for war was made more concrete to me.