One Utah

In case you missed it at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the best documentary about the occupation of Iraq, “No End in Sight” by Charles Ferguson, is now playing at the Broadway Centre Cinemas in Salt Lake City.

UPDATE: The only thing wrong with this movie is, you shouldn’t have to pay eight bucks to see it. “No End in Sight” or something very much like it ought to be featured on CNN, with Christiane Amanpour narrating. Why not? The inside story of how the Bush administration botched the occupation of Iraq has already been told in several books, including Fiasco, The Assassins’ Gate and Imperial Life in the Emerald City. But no, CNN and the other networks left it to a first-time filmmaker to produce the best documentary about Iraq.

As you might expect, the books provide more aspects of the Iraq fiasco and a lot more detail. But this film covers the main points, the biggest of which is: all the key decisions that caused Iraq’s descent into chaos were made in Washington by people who never served in combat, had never set foot in Iraq, didn’t speak Arabic and had no relevant experience at all. They willfully ignored the experienced generals and diplomats who were desperately trying to steer American policy in a positive direction.

The heart of “No End in Sight” is a series of interviews, primarily with people who were there in the crucial early days of the occupation. They tell a tragic story of missed opportunities and boneheaded leadership. For example Robert Hutchings, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, talks about writing the January 2003 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that raised the possibilities of insurgency and civil war subsequent to a U.S. invasion. President Bush dismissed it as “just guessing.” He never even bothered to read the one-page executive summary.

More notes: the filmmakers took risks to get interviews with Iraqis last year in Baghdad, this is the first documentary I’ve seen that includes bodyguards and a private security company in the credits. And when the showing was ending a nice gray haired lady in the audience shouted, “Let’s impeach Bush and Cheney!”

This entry was posted Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 10:30 am and is filed under Disaster, Iraq, National Politics, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.