No End in Sight

Just when it seemed that documentaries about 9/11 and the Iraq war had played themselves out, along comes writer/director Charles Ferguson's devastating and insightful NO END IN SIGHT. Where FAHRENHEIT 9/11 had basically nailed the Bush cabal for lying about the reasons America went to war in Iraq, and many other documentaries skewered the news media for basically being in bed with the administration, Ferguson probes into what was and was NOT going on in Iraq before, during, and after the invasion; and if you think you've seen it all, NO END IN SIGHT shows that what you've really seen is the mere tip of the iceberg.

In the film, Ferguson gets to interview people who were actually there in the firestorm, like Jay Garner, Paul Hughes, Barbara Bodine, deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Seth Moulton, a U.S. Marine, and others who were involved in trying to reconstruct Iraq, and who instead found themselves totally stymied by an administration that displayed the worst in America: arrogance; venality; incompetence; cockiness; and indifference. The idea that we would topple Saddam Hussein, restore order, create a new government, and then leave within six months or so was ludicrous to begin with anyway on paper; but as the graphic footage of the looting, the IEDs, and the various recountings by our people, numerous journalists (including George Packer), and various Middle East experts, show, it was infinitely worse when put into practice. The unfortunate thing of it all is that very good people like Bodine, Moulton, and Hughes were left hung out to dry by an administration that bragged about knowing everything there was about imposing American power on the world, and proved that they knew NOTHING about the limits of doing it.

NO END IN SIGHT allows the viewer to see for themselves what it is over there in Iraq and doesn't preach from a pulpit as to the morality of going into Iraq in the first place. But it leaves no doubt that the Bush Administration will be judged by history for how it handled the aftermath, and that the verdict will likely be devastating, regardless of the military outcome. This is a film that MUST be seen by Americans of all political persuasions, because it forces upon us the reality that our good intentions can often be sabotaged by an administration's indifference to death and suffering.

This is a very interesting documentary that focuses on the Second Iraq War and the immediate aftermath. I must not have been paying close attention to the news when these events unfolded, because much of it was new to me. It is a very balanced look (not Michael Moore-style at all) that focuses on interviews with military, political and civilian institutions that were there, and how the decision making took place.

This documentary doesn't pass judgment on whether going to Iraq in the first place was a good idea, what it does pass judgment on are the decisions made after the US took over and how that affected the chaos that ensued. It is a very informative documentary and I highly recommend it.

You cannot lavish this much skill on a project and settle for "I don't know" from the principles as the answer to all the blood and treasure. You are either lying or stupid. Three people, all with long ties to Israeli Intelligence, made all these decisions that destroyed a civilization, an empire, and the common cultural heritage of the human race, with no consulting of knowledgeable people in Iraq and you don't tell us why in your movie? It was all for nothing if the real culprits and their motivation remain anonymous. How they must laugh at our ignorance!

The film is clear and informative. And it is depressing seeing how one of the greatest foreign policy debacles in the history of this country unfolded before our deceived eyes.

This film, although kind of worth seeing for its depiction of the mess that is post invasion Iraq, puts a lot of emphasis on the 'incompetence' of the Bush camp, and all of their 'mistakes' in post invasion Iraq. It doesn't call into question the crime of going to war in the first place but seems to in some way excuse this by ignoring it and pursuing a 'What went wrong' line in analysing the post invasion. This film talks a lot of the lack of military experience of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush et al. The idea that many have that America would be there for the long run as long as the outcome is American domination of the oil in Iraq seems to me to be missing in this film and is crucial to any analysis of invasion and post invasion plans. (and I don't think that a quick outcome from expert military tactics but which resulted in a peaceful government which was in charge of their own oil without American domination is their objective).
Leaving unquestioned the motivations of the invasion (many would argue oil and big business, and which are of course necessary to investigate in an analysis of post invasion strategy) means that the casual uninformed American and western observer fed on westerm media would think that the supposed aims of 'freedom' and 'democracy for Iraq' have been destroyed or set back by 'incompetence'. This seems like a very small bitter pill for the administration to swallow as so many are against the war, and I'm sure they would rather be seen as 'incompetent' rather than criminal. As the US are building their massive bases there and securing domination of the oil I wonder if the media and films which are pursuing the (supposed) 'what went wrong' line are really just another smokescreen