Monday, April 21, 2008

John Cusack's War Inc.



John Cusack's new movie War Inc. is coming out soon and from the trailer it looks pretty interesting. The story is set in the near future where corporations have taken over running wars completely and the consequences that ensue. The movie was made without big studio money and was inspired by Naomi Klein's amazing book "The Shock Doctrine". He made an appearance today on Crooks & Liars to answer questions about the movie. Here's my favorite comment he posted:

corporate armies…some of the meanings of privatization …
lets start with the fact that in Iraq there are now more contractors than soldiers(180,000 contractors vs. around 140,000 troops). WAR INC just takes this trend to its logical conclusion, a time in the near future when war is an entirely corporate affair.hopefully this can be stopped but there are disturbing virus like built into this system. I.e.–when countries like Britain or Poland pulls troops out of Iraq, in the vacuum they are instantly replaced by mercenary soldiers, often from the same countries, sometimes they are the same guys who just switch from wearing a flag to wearing a corporate logo.this is what Naomi deconstructs so savagely in her book ” the shock doctrine” it is what she calls “corporate mission creep” …and it’s the real story in Iraq.
people have adopted a new narrative that the surge IS working but Iraq is NOT working… Where truthfully neither is working for the US or the IRAQ’S but for BLACKWATER it’s all working great.
Another narrative we can deconstruct — that it’s fitting for private soldiers to fight these wars because the only ones these wars are benefiting are corporations, like Shell and Exxon which have seen their profits soar because the chaos sends the price of oil up. So if these are wars for corporations , it makes sense for them to be fought with corporate armies — which is the way they do it in parts of Africa.This has a sort of horrible logic to it if you could get past the fact that it’s all insane.The problem, though, again, it’s a lie— EXXON ISN’T PAYING BLACKWATER… WE ARE.

(his emphasis)

We should all go check this movie out. I don't know about the rest of the Illiterate Electorate but I haven't been disappointed with a Cusack film in quite some time. I have a feeling John might hit this one outta the park. I will post a review as soon as I see the film.

4 comments:

puddy said...

must love dogs was my favorite!

Anonymous said...

Hey Illiterate,

(Sorry, sometimes I can't help myself ;-) I like what you're doing here, as you've nailed one of the biggest problems of our democracy— an ignorant electorate. We blogrolled you yesterday at UrantianSojourn as one of our "kindred spirits."
Hope that works for you. . .

Cheers,
Michael

Bradda said...

Michael,
Thanks for the the shout out! Glad you enjoy our little blog. I'll have to check you guys out. Peace.

puddy said...

Cheers Michael. Thanks for stopping by!