Errol Morris | Nothing But The Rain

Some things about war have changed. Its unpredictability has not. Its propensity to spiral out of control has not. Its tendency to grow beyond its planned scope has not. Its evil has not. These things are war and these things will never change. They only become more dangerous in a nuclear age.

“You make one mistake and you’re going to destroy nations,” Robert McNamara warned. Therefore, we must do everything in our power to avoid mistakes or situations in which mistakes can be made. Anything else will lead to unnecessary death and destruction.

Although the words are McNamara’s, the “lessons” are McNamara’s as perceived by Errol Morris. Even so, it is clear that Robert McNamara wished to pass along his knowledge to save lives and to save nations. McNamara has learned these lessons the hard way. Although the fog of war will shroud our vision and cloud our judgment, considering these lessons will help us minimize the consequences of our inevitable mistakes.

Jump to a lesson:
Introduction
Lesson 1: Empathize with Your Enemy
Lesson 2: Rationality Will Not Save Us
Lesson 3: There’s Something Beyond One’s Self
Lesson 4: Maximize Efficiency
Lesson 5: Proportionality Should Be a Guideline in War
Lesson 6: Get the Data
Lesson 7: Belief and Seeing Are Often Both Wrong
Lesson 8: Be Prepared to Re-examine Your Reasoning
Lesson 9: In Order To Do Good, You May Have To Engage in Evil
Lesson 10: Never Say Never
Lesson 11: You Can’t Change Human Nature
Conclusion

War. War never changes.

Or so says the introduction of every game of the Fallout series. Whether fighting other nations, groups of bandits, or our merciless existence itself, the concept of war remains unchanged.

Except that war has changed.

War has always destroyed lives. War has always destroyed families. By the 1800s, war destroyed cities. However, when Leslie Groves, Robert Oppenheimer, and others worked their magic, war has had the potential to destroy our world.

Enter Robert McNamara, officer of the US Army Air Corps, President of Ford Motor Company, Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and President of the World Bank. Filmmaker Errol Morris conducted over twenty hours of interview with McNamara. The result is the Academy Award-winning documentary film The Fog of War.

As McNamara states seconds into the film,

Any military commander who is honest with himself, or with those he’s speaking to, will admit that he has made mistakes in the application of military power. He’s killed people unnecessarily — his own troops or other troops — through mistakes, through errors of judgment. A hundred, or thousands, or tens of thousands, maybe even a hundred thousand. But, he hasn’t destroyed nations.

And the conventional wisdom is don’t make the same mistake twice, learn from your mistakes. And we all do. Maybe we make the same mistake three times, but hopefully not four or five. They’ll be no learning period with nuclear weapons. You make one mistake and you’re going to destroy nations.

The Fog of War is, in many ways, McNamara’s swan song, the culmination of twenty-five years of public service. The film takes us through Morris and McNamara’s eleven lessons of war, a rubric to minimize death and destruction in the 21^st Century.

Nothing But The Rain

What Do You Hear?

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The Fog of War Conclusion

The Fog of War Introduction