Now that it is safe to openly criticize the Bush administration about Iraq, critics with perfect 20/20 hindsight are pouring out of the woodwork to show how Bush blew it with this infamous war.
For a moment, director and producer of “No End in Sight” Charles Ferguson seemed like another voice jumping on the bandwagon and stating the obvious. What saves this unique documentary is how it relentlessly chronicles the series of catastrophic errors in judgment committed by the Bush administration that led to the Iraq quagmire – surprisingly, without forcing its own judgment upon the viewer.
The people doing the talking – and ultimately the persuading – in this documentary are the lower-level Bush administration officials, Iraqi politicians, and military experts who were directly involved in carrying out Bush’s decisions. They were the ones who set up shop in Iraq after the occupation, expecting to help bring the country back to normal. What these officials recount is a Keystone Cop-like series of Mad-Hatter decisions on how Iraq should be governed that ran counter to common sense and flew in the face of logic, experience and history.
Each Bush decision proved more fatal than the previous: From a lack of clear planning for a post-invasion Iraq government; to the use of insufficient troops to maintain order, after toppling Saddam; to standing by as the country was gutted and looted; to the disbanding of the Iraqi government and military; to the continued refusal to listen to anyone with a semblance of military experience or insight into the Iraqi people and its culture.
The result was the country we see today – plunged into deep, utter chaos and lawlessness.
The extraordinary thing about the top three members of the Bush cabinet who made the decisions is that none of them had any actual war experience. Dick Cheney secured five draft deferments to avoid military service; Donald Rumsfeld was a Navy pilot but never saw combat; George W. Bush joined the Texas National Guard, avoiding the draft.
Less is More
Ferguson is no Michael Moore – and that is actually what makes “No End in Sight” watch-able and, more important, illuminating. Moore’s aggressive, in-your-face approach to filmmaking fires up his supporters – but alienate his detractors. The result is that Moore preaches to the converted while creating resentment and hostility among those who don’t share his point of view – or simply think he is too fat.
Ferguson isn’t so heavy-handed. He lets the facts – and his interviewees – speak for themselves. Interspersed with their recollections are vivid images of the violence tearing Iraq apart. But these images are never gratuitous or intentionally inflammatory.
A Funny Thing Happens
Listening to these former, smaller players in the Iraq tragedy, one first feels the same frustration and helplessness they must have felt, finding themselves carrying out orders that were counter-intuitive and which undermined their efforts at every step. But one quickly begins to wonder whether these officials deserve our pity. One asks: how hard did they try to hold their ground and challenge Bush’s decisions? Ferguson provides the answer in a brief Q&A with one of the interviewees, Walter Slocombe, senior advisor for National and Security Defense, CPA:
Q. (About planning for a post-war Iraq just months before the invasion, when it should have been years)How much did it occur to you, “Isn’t it kind of late for them to be thinking of this?
Slocombe: Yes.
Q. Did you tell them that?
Slocombe: No
Bush and his top aids are guilty of incompetence and arrogance, in their management of the Iraq war. But those they hired to do their bidding – like the soldiers who followed orders and ran the concentration camps in Germany – must also accept a modicum of responsibility. I couldn’t help thinking that the officials speaking in “No End in Sight,” when they worked for Bush, were helpless bureaucrats under the control of upper management – and today, in telling their tales of woe, they were also trying to cover their backsides by blaming the boss.
"No End in Sight" deserves a viewing. It is such a genuine piece of documentary filmmaking that it may someday received a higher honor than winning an award at a film festival. It may be shown in history classes.
“No End in Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq,” was written, directed and produced by Charles Ferguson. He is founder and president of Representational Pictures, Inc. This is his first film.
Opening:
7/27/2007
Washington, DC: E Street Cinema
New York, NY: Film Forum
8/3/2007Pasadena, CA: Laemmle's One Colorado Cinemas
West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
Check listings for other cities throughout the U.S.
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Comments: 28
There is another film you may have watched called "Bush's Brain" based on the book by James Moore and Wayne Slater. It chronicles Karl Rove and his role in Bush's political career. It's very illuminating.
My husband and I saw SiCKO last night - and were quite glum for the remainder of the evening.
Thanks for the heads up....
Thanks Mario, I hadn't heard about this documentary. Now I'm sure to look for it.
Pat yourselves on the back for being "enlightened" brothers.
Please dont tell me that this administration is doing a terrific job in Iraq? Not unless of course we are grading him on how well he has implemented neoliberal policies that steal that countries resources for years to come, and also on how efficiently he has orchestrated civil war and mass suffering?
Your comments never seem to be very deep, thats all.
Thanks, Mario -- it won't play around here, but it's going in the Netflix list. Good review, too.
I highly recommend (for those who haven't seen it) the documentary, "Why We Fight," which chronicles the rise of the military-industrial complex dating from the Eisenhower years.
I think jJack, Randall, and Don make a point, though one doubts strongly that they realize what it is. A truthful recounting of how this invasion and occupation has been conducted is indeed hard to believe, there is such a consistent level of chaos generating, turmoil provoking, and progress undermining decision making, that it hardly seems real. The level of disregard for what people who are knowledgeable about military affairs, and the society we were dealing with seems utterly senseless.
But their is another possibility, which is somewhat difficult to wrap ones mind around, but would actually account for the amazingly erroneous record this Administration amassed. It is the possibility that these were not errors at all. If one imagines for a moment, what an invasion and occupation intended to create chaos and violence would look like, one could hardly come up with a better recipe than what has actually occurred in Iraq.
If the goal of these people was to create enough chaos and bitterness to generate plausible "enemies", with which to justify continuing with the "re-ordering" of the Mideast, and further conflicts in the region, and ever more fear of terrorism here and throughout the West, then they very nearly succeeded. If not for a handful of fortuitous leaks, and ballsy retired Generals and officials, and tenacious investigative reporters, we could easily be seeing military actions against Iran and Syria by this point.
If Iraq was never intended to be the end of a campaign, but merely the second chapter in a much larger story, virtually every decision suddenly makes sense. While it's true that nobody bats a thousand, it's not really that difficult to bat zero. Is that not Al-Qaeda back on the mound?
There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all ... B Dylan
I guess 911 is a distant memory to some in America. We didn't create jack... all we are doing is finally waking up to the threats posed by radical Islamists and tyrants who support them, as well as those enemies with the means to create WMDs. Libs are still sleeping at the wheel... their biggest enemy as they see it is George W. Bush. It's pathetic.
I've always been curious . . . perhaps you could explain to me;
What exactly is it about radical tyrannical leaders existing in other places, which renders it less likely that such a thing might be true here as well?
Seems like counter-intuitive reasoning somehow . . .
Looking forward more than ever to seeing it. Since the very real miserable history of the war on Iraq has been so distorted and revised, this documentary will be a critical part of the historical record. [Moore's films too -- either because or in spite of his style -- he's shown us the elephants in the room.]
But first you have to get their attention -- so they actually know that the wrecking ball is. . . .ooops.
JJack, don't be shy about telling us the ending; please, please, which part is the b.s. -- or better yet, who exactly is slinging it?
Don,
Just keep playing that rancid old "9/11--nuke tune" till everyone is asleep at the switch and before you know it "surprise" Chertof's gut feeling somehow comes true. Tell me, Don, does Putin have the soulful eyes that Bushie told us he could read? Does Putin have nukes? More importantly, does Putin have friends --besides Bush--or is he the enemy? It's all so simple; there are good guys and there are the bad guys. . . .
This country's biggest enemy is YOU -- unless you're one of those silly musicians who just like to hang out and do dope.
John Knight makes a good point. Pretending to be an idiot is a great way to gain power in this anti-intellectual society. I don't believe it for a minute - not since reading Bob Woodward's wonderful Plan of Attack several years ago. I highly recommend it.
Talk with to filmmaker Charles Ferguson (et al) about his award-winning new documentary on how Washington ran Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. http://www.onpointradio.org/ -July30 ,2007 archived
I just wanted to say I am finally going through what is now under 5,800 pieces of gather new mail that is in my inbox on here. So with that in mind I have finally come to a piece of mail that was addressed to me in regards this article submission you have created to share with the gather community. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your piece with us here at gather. :o)
And I hope you have a Happy New Year... in 2009 :o)