No End In Sight
No End In Sight is a
shocking, heartbreaking, disturbing dissection of the United States'
involvement in the war in Iraq. It shows the planning of the war to be
made up of inexperience, cronyism, hubris, ineptitude and a critical lack of
foresight.
Before the Fox News pundits
start hemming and hawing about the film being partisan theatrics -- note
that unlike... say, a Michael Moore film... this movie does not just
interview the converted. No End In Sight talks to the people
who were there, who were involved, who gave their best expertise and who
were shut out by an administration of chicken hawks which values loyalty
over competence. There are commentators from all sides of the debate
and both sides of the war.
In fact, I have read
online (but have been unable to confirm)
that writer/director Charles Ferguson was an early supporter of the war
effort.
He
has obviously been shaken by
what he has seen become of a plan he had believed in,
though, because No End In Sight is an incisive, impassioned,
despairing look at the hornet's nest which has been stirred up directly
because the George W. Bush administration has so badly bungled the
situation.
Ferguson does not have to try to vilify
Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, because their own actions do the job quite
well. Like any good documentarian, Ferguson just sits back, puts forth
the facts of the case, and lets them speak for themselves.
The sad fact of the matter,
as we are reminded here, that it all stems from a time of great
possibilities. In the shadow of the tragic World Trade Center attacks,
the world was ready to embrace the United States. They felt our pain
and there was the fleeting, but incredible chance to create diplomatic
understanding like never before.
Instead, the Bush-Cheney
cabal decided to settle an old grudge, dragging Iraq into the equation.
They kept repeating, though they knew better, that Iraq was involved in the
attacks. They attacked a country that was not involved -- just because
they could and they wanted to.
Even when the US took over
Iraq -- though this invasion was based upon lies, innuendo, greed and false
machismo -- there was a window of time when the Iraqis were willing to
explore the possibilities of the situation. Some were even happy to
see us.
However, it was a
squandered opportunity. Shockingly obtuse decisions -- like not
securing the stores of Iraqi weapons, refusing to rebuild the area's
infrastructure, and most deadly of all, disbanding the Iraqi Army, leaving
hundreds of thousands of soldiers angry and without a way of feeding their
families unless they side with the insurgents -- has made the war the
quagmire which it has become.
It got the Iraqis believing
that they had traded in one dictator for another. The Iraqis at least
had jobs and electricity and living, breathing family back then. There
was no al Qaeda in Iraq during the regime of Saddam Hussein. It is a
malignant force now. All because a few men who claimed to have the
best interests of the US in mind forced this war upon us, undoubtedly for
profiteering.
This is not the United
States I grew up in.
George
W. Bush has said many times over the course of his time in office that we
can't evaluate what kind of job he has done in the present tense -- only
history will be able to judge his administration. He better hope that history
won't have a copy of No End In Sight.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2007 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: July 29, 2007.
