There finally is a documentary movie about the Iraq war that the Bush administration should truly — genuinely — fear.
It is NOT a movie about ideology. It is NOT a movie that has an entertaining showman/interviewer bursting with personality as an unofficial character. It is NOT a movie that hurls political adjectives at the policymakers who helped create what is now the unprecedented Iraq war crisis. It is NOT a movie where some can say that the key people who give the devastating interviews are anti-Bush Democrats or must be RINOS.
In fact, the people who outline the case that the occupation in Iraq was an unmitigated, unplanned disaster are largely loyal Republicans who had served their party and America’s foreign policy apparatus competently for many years.
They outline in detail, with facts, and with personal testimonials about what went on behind the scenes, how the occupation of Iraq has been one of the most incompetent events in American history — created by administration members sure of their ideas and dismissive of those who didn’t agree with them…particularly those who in other administrations would have been respected for their advice and expertise.
Charles Ferguson’s No End In Sight has been likened by some to the power-punch of a Michael Moore movie — but because its style makes it far more accessible to a wider range of voters, it can potentially have even more impact than Moore.
The movie, which opened Friday week in New York and Washington and will soon be released nationwide, is perhaps the most devastating film chronicle of the post-invasion Iraq war debacle precisely because it is laid out coolly, clinically. It starts out detailing the series of mis-steps that led to the war. However, the key to its genius is its use of non-political interviews with veteran officials who were in the middle of the war and were shocked that there was no real occupation plan and how they fruitlessly tried to keep the Bush administration from making huge mistakes.
These interviews, plus interviews with reporters and civilians, are coupled with an array of facts and film footage that unemotionally and unceasingly dissects Bush administration policy decisions and the impact on the Iraqi population. And the evidence again suggests: the administration had preconceived ideas and arrogantly brushed aside those who offered different ones.
The problem with many current documentaries is that the filmmakers often have reputations pegging them as activists. That turns off X amount of viewers although it preaches well to the choir or aspiring choir members and the end result can be films that change minds but not as many as would have been possible if people from the opposing camp would see them.
Even if you are a war supporter or someone who has mixed feelings about the war, No End In Sight is going to make you think. And, most likely re-evaluate the trust you placed in assertions the administration made and makes in the future.
One reason is that the key policy making figures interviewed are not from the Cindy Sheehan camp but professional military, government and diplomatic types. Among the ones that help piece together a puzzle dripping with self-assured hubris:
–Col. Paul Hughes (who comes across as one of the most noble ones), whose job included working closely with the Iraqi Army. He tells the jolting story of having to receive Iraqi Army officials who were stunned to hear talk that the Army was being dissolved. He had to break it to them: it looked that way. This lead to literally thousands of Iraqis with military training being unemployed…and moving into the insurgency.
–Richard Armitage and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson who worked for Colin Powell and discovered how fruitless their efforts and warnings were. It was clear: the higher-ups’ minds were made up (as the movie makes clear their minds were up to invade Iraq immediately after 911, even though there was no evidence that Iraq played a role).
“I think this decision to disband the [Iraqi] Army came as a surprise to most of us…â€
Q: What was your reaction?
“I thought we had just created a problem. We had a lot of out of work
[Iraqi] soldiers.â€
–.. interview with Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State
–Ambassador Barbara Bodine, a highly-respected professional who was put in charge of Baghdad during the occupation. She received an immediate shock: the war zone didn’t have any telephones for weeks on end.
Most of those interviewed don’t shake their heads with dismay, but you can see that’s how they feel. Ferguson also uses a perfect mesh of interviews, news videos, facts put on the screen and film footage. Not a frame of the film is there for padding. It all supports the main theme and interviews.
There are many conclusions that can be drawn from No End In Sight and here are a few:
(1) No End In Sight documents the fact that the insurgency is NOT simply Al Qaeda but partially-comprised of people from the police and military who lost their jobs and almost all of their income to support their families after being summarily-fired by the U.S. government — DESPITE repeated warnings from some military officials, professional diplomats and people associated with Colin Powell.
(2) Some key people most responsible for the present Iraq policy refused to be interviewed for the film but that’s no surprise. It’s clear from the film that they ignored the advice of their own professionals in the field who warned them in no uncertain terms what some of their decisions could likely bring. Why talk to a filmmaker whose content can’t be controlled? But Ferguson doesn’t let them off the hook: he pointedly notes the names of those who refused to be interviewed. Paul Wolfowitz. Vice President Dick Cheney. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and several others.
(3) The film makes it clear that stunningly poor American policy choices that led to the present situation. The decisions stemmed from the administration’s ongoing characteristic detailed by Bob Woodward: a kind of policy by positive self-affirmation. Among the many monster mistakes: disbanding the Army, using an insufficient number of troops despite warnings, standing by as looting went on (and thus alienating the populace and emboldening lawless elements), and forcing professionals out of Iraq government jobs.
(4) It’s likely that if historians comb through American history they will not find a similar situation where the United States literally had no after-the-war plan in place.
(5) Super-slick editing of footage will haunt you. One bit of footage used before: an American solider standing on a corner. An explosion. He is totally gone. Second: George Bush savoring Mission Accomplished in his military jump suit. he seems gone, too…but in a different kind of way.
No End In Sight is also a foreshadowing of the fact that, long after this long war is over, the FOOTAGE will remain and the FOOTAGE of what administration officials originally asserted and how they later insisted they never said it will remain….and be used over and over again to teach future generations.
But the producers of No End In Sight better get ready.
Those who strongly support the war will try to discredit it — but it’ll be hard to do so since this is more akin to a PBS or 60 Minutes Report than a Michael Moore movie. And they better be prepared for some on the left to go after them, too. This is NOT a movie attacking ideology or neocons. It doesn’t contain allegations about George Bush, or claim that the war was about oil. It may not have enough political “red meat.”
It eschews the ideological and polemical and politically focuses on the factual told by people who were involved in the policy-making and policy implementation process– people who still seem stunned and at times angered by the tragically costly hubris, intellectual dismissiveness and unprecedented incompetence of their bosses who ignored their advice and, in many cases, pleas.
On TMV’s scale of one-to-ten stars ,we give No End In Sight 10 stars. This is MUST viewing for voters of both parties, liberals, moderates, centrists, independents and independent-thinking conservatives.
Here are two trailers to preview the movie:
Another trailer can be seen HERE.
SOME OTHER REVIEWS OF NO END IN SIGHT:
Blogcritics
Hollywood Reporter
Read Express
The Nation
New York Times
Intel Dump
News Blaze
Blue Me Me
About.com
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.