No End in Sight, Charles H. Ferguson's documentary about the occupation of Iraq, is available to watch for free on YouTube until November 5th. The documentary focuses on the first two years of the invasion and the miscalculations of the Bush Administration in engaging in the invasion in the first place. The basic premises of the film are that:
* The rise of the insurgency was not anticipated
* Proper security and basic utilities were not provided for Iraq
* They did not foresee the sectarian violence or potential civil war
What makes this film so significant is not any sort of revelations that come from the film (since most of the information was known in advance of the war by many intellectuals), but that key members of the occupation leadership and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) lay out how the Administration mismanaged the war. This leads to the damning, and widely acknowledged, conclusion that the Bush Administration refused to listen to outsiders who could have foreseen such results. The interviewees include the likes of:
*General Jay Garner( who ran the reconstruction before L. Paul Bremer)
*Ambassador Barbara Bodine
*Richard Armitage (who was deputy secretary of the State Department)
*Robert Hutchings (who was chairman of the National Intelligence Council)
*Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (who was Colin Powell's chief of staff)
*Col. Paul Hughes (who was part of ORHA and then the Coalition Provisional Authority)
The documentary was critically acclaimed (not only having received a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but appearing on the Top 10 list of many critics) and so now, sit back, and enjoy:
2 comments:
thanks - i am excited to watch this.
It's a great film, one of the best movies of 2007. I saw it after reading a lot of ten best lists, which of course it made.
Despite "the surge," it's as relevant now, if not more, than ever.
Post a Comment