[Iraq War Docu] No End in Sight

[ptavv]

Very well done movie.

Basically a documentary film version of Imperial Life in the Emerald City (which is the best book written on the Iraq war invasion of the many I've read).

While it's extremely critical of the way the invasion was planned (or not, in this case) it's done in a very objective fashion.

Getting the other side's point of view would be interesting but until Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, or Wolfowitz start giving interviews that can't really happen. Those administration officials who were interviewed seemed to have multiple people who disagreed with them on tape.

[Cliff Huckable]

Where did you see it?
TV? Cinema? DVD?

[ptavv]

My roomate got it on Netflix.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Haven't seen it but second the praise for Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

[ptavv]

SSD, the movie focuses a lot more attention on the dissolution of the Iraqi army than ILitEC did.

The movie doesn't make the point that ILitEC did about ignorance of the religious leaders' influence in Iraq.

Movie talks a lot about the quality of the UN's mission to Iraq. One of the women in the movie they interview about Sergio Vieira de Mello was on NPR recently talking about the book she wrote about him.

[powder11]

I bought this DVD at Costco the other day. Not a bad view at all considering I was expecting a Michael Moore type opinion piece. The people interviewed all seemed credible and it revealed how Iraq turned into such a shit show. Probably could've had a much different outcome if the politicians had listened to the experts. When its all laid out in chronological order, it becomes quite apparent that the Bush administration pretty much did the opposite of what every top military adviser suggested.

Top three blunders of the war:

1) Not sending enough ground troops to secure the country post invasion.
2) Firing off all the educated ministry people for being "Bathists" who were only Bathists under Saddam in fear of their lives.
3) Telling the former Iraq military to go fly a kite thereby putting thousands of angry young men, who are armed to the teeth, out of work with no means to support themselves and their families.

Those three blunders are the reason an insurgency exists in Iraq; Al Quaida just took advantage of the open house.