Why is Iraq in Chaos? NO END IN SIGHT Learn the Truth! 7/27

[seemslikeadream]

How can you fight if you don't recognize the warning



http://www.noendinsightmovie.com/



http://www.ericblumrich.com/

Much has been said about the war in Iraq, especially how we were so horribly misled into it. Robert Greenwald and Michael Moore, among many others, have done an excellent job in translating this painful episode in our recent history into film.

One would think that after a dozen or so excellent (and a few dozen not-so-excellent) films, the subject had been tapped dry. When I got a review DVD of "No End In Sight," I sighed to myself: "What- ANOTHER one of these?" What else can be said, really?

A hell of a lot, as I soon found out.

This film is the first that I've seen that, rather than focusing on the chicanery during the lead up and immediate aftermath of the invasion, covers the long, sorry history of our occupation of Iraq- and it's a story so stained with blind arrogance and grotesque incompetence that it baffles the mind.

It's important to note that the film's cast of commentators isn't the rogue's gallery of antiwar liberals you'd normally expect in such a film. The damning evidence this film presents is related by the likes of former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, US Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Major General Paul Eaton, General Jay Gardner, Walter Slocombe, and Col. Paul Huges (among many others.) These are, as the film's website boasts, "The ultimate Insiders." These were people who had a front-row seat to the debacle that is our adventure in Iraq.

No- scratch that word: "Debacle." Replace it with "Irreversible shitstorm."

It has become the de-rigeur defense of the remaining 25% who support the war to say "All you lib'ruls can do is second-guess." The antiwar majority is accused of playing "monday morning quarterback." "It's easy to just sit back and criticize," we're told...

Indeed, it is easy to sit back and criticize:

Item: When Baghdad fell, and the city devolved into an orgy of chaotic looting, not only were we unprepared for it, our troops were given express orders not to interfere. Thus, we showed the people of the newly-conquered country of Iraq that we were unwilling or unable to exercise authority.

Item: Instead of immediately turning over power to an interim Iraqi government, we installed a Provisional Authority. In the staff of this imposed government, only a handful could speak arabic, and even fewer had any experience that would prepare them for their new positions. This new government was not only incapable of communicating with the Iraqi people, it was incapable of governing them.

Item: This Provisional authority put 23-year-old white kids who had just graduated from Ivy League universities in charge of entire Iraqi government agencies. It didn't matter that they had zero knowledge of what they were doing- what mattered was the fat check the kid's father had sent to the republican party.

Item: Paul Bremer decided to disband the Iraqi army, which resulted in a half-million heavily armed men roaming the country, looking for their next meal. Keep in mind, until Bremer decreed thusly, the higher echelons of the existing Iraqi army were ready and willing to help secure the country under US supervision.

Item: "De- Ba'athification" fired everyone who had any links with the former ruling party, even though a majority had joined simply out of a sense of self-preservation. This effectively barred 100,000 of Iraq's most educated and influential people from taking any role in Iraq's reconstruction.

Item: These examples are but the tip of the iceberg.

What's especially frustrating, is that these insane decisions were challenged- not by liberal whackos like you and I, but by highly-experienced, knowledgeable military and civilian experts from within the administration. At every turn, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bremer, and the usual suspects were warned that they were screwing the pooch, but they ignored these warnings, and just kept on making horrible decisions- no matter how many times they were proven wrong.

Bush, when he enters the picture, is blissfully and willfully ignorant of what's going on.

After watching this film, I felt drained, and saddened. It paints a picture of a monolithic arrogance that almost strikes one dumb with wonder (and that's sayin' something, considering I've been studying this nest of vipers for well on to a decade.)

If it's showing in your town, I can't think of a better way to spend a few bucks and a few hours. However, If you're a recovering alcoholic, I'd stay away- after viewing this, you'll want to blot out everything you've just seen...



It's more horrible and sad than you could imagine.