Beyond Iran: Do the midterms signal a larger reckoning?
PHOTO: Envato
BEYOND IRAN
Four films on U.S. empire, oil & the history behind today’s wars
Last week’s midterm elections delivered a blistering rebuke to Donald Trump and the Republican Party, fueled in part by growing bipartisan opposition to the U.S. war in Iran. According to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 71% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, want Congress to pass legislation ending the war.¹
The backlash offers a chance to ask a question that goes far beyond Iran: Why has the United States spent decades fighting wars, projecting military power, and propping up authoritarian regimes across the Middle East, regardless of which party controls the White House?
As the films featured below help illustrate, a major part of the answer lies in a deeply flawed assumption that’s shaped U.S. foreign policy under Democratic and Republican administrations alike: that American security depends on wielding military power to maintain global dominance, including control over the world’s oil supplies.
Released over more than two decades, these four documentaries offer a kind of time-capsule view of this imperial mindset in action. In different ways, they reveal how the pursuit of global dominance and control over the world’s energy resources has driven endless wars, led to gross violations of international law, inflicted immense human suffering, intensified environmental crises, and repeatedly generated the very instability and conflict U.S. militarism is supposed to prevent.
Together, they give educators powerful tools for helping students look beyond today’s headlines, challenge the dominant media narratives used to justify U.S. militarism, and understand the larger historical forces that continue to shape America’s wars.
All of these titles are available on our new streaming platform in multiple formats. They’re also available as part of MEF’s Premium Collection, which offers flexible subscription and permanent-access licensing options. To learn more about the Premium Collection, contact Stephen Belcourt at [email protected].
1. “Most Americans want new Democratic Congress to end Trump’s Iran war, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds,” Reuters, Nov. 10, 2026.
FEATURED MEF FILMS
BLOOD & OIL
Energy and national security expert Michael Klare traces how Democratic and Republican administrations have used military power to control global oil supplies, prop up authoritarian regimes, and extend U.S. dominance since World War II.
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HIJACKING CATASTROPHE
Reveals how the Bush administration exploited 9/11 to advance longstanding plans for global domination through military force, eliminating potential rivals, and securing control over Middle Eastern oil.
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THE RACE FOR WHAT’S LEFT
Michael Klare exposes how the escalating global scramble for dwindling natural resources is fueling geopolitical rivalries, environmental destruction, and the growing threat of military conflict.
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THE AGE OF CONSEQUENCES
Drawing on interviews with Pentagon insiders and military veterans, this documentary reveals how fossil-fuel-driven climate change is intensifying resource scarcity, mass displacement, political instability, and armed conflict around the world.
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