Just a speed-bump on the path to peace — No End in Sight uses interviews with high-ranking members of the Bush administration to assemble a more complete view of what went wrong
“Fuck Bush.”
“Fuck terrorist-loving hippies.”
“Fuck the freedom-hating, homophobic, bigoted foreigners that have ruined this country.”
Nobody discusses Iraq anymore. At this point, it’s become abstracted ad nauseam, propping up flagging political will and mock indignity harvested for another Oscar season. Elsewhere, the right is embarrassed for not getting what it wanted and the left is embarrassed by how it let this happen, and both want to just leave the mess behind and move on. Charles Ferguson’s No End in Sight refuses to participate in grade school bickering and polemic rhetoric. The documentary doesn’t have time for morality, political agendas or emotional manipulation. No End in Sight is lean and focused, denying emotions for facts, and will leave you shaken and angry.
No End in Sight doesn’t contain a single cheap shot. No snide remarks on the intelligence of the Bush administration. No break for emotional interludes or political grandstanding. Ferguson smartly avoids the ideological head-butting within the decisions to go to war and instead focuses on the actual reconstruction process. Constructing a timeline, the documentary goes into stunning detail about what went wrong and, most importantly, provides the context. There’s the order from the administration to disband the Iraqi army, despite the protest from every single expert and willing soldier. There are American forces unable to stop Iraqis from looting ammunition dumps and depots. And, of course, there were political favours in the form of vital positions on the reconstruction, including the freshly graduated baccalaureate put in charge of traffic in Baghdad. It’s all mind-boggling, but most importantly, it’s undeniable. Instead of the usual round of political pundits and commentators, Ferguson interviews the actual people involved in the reconstruction, people in Bush’s administration. The list of names is long and shocking: former Secretary of State Richard Armitage, head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance Gen. Jay Garner, director of Strategic Policy Col. Paul Hughes, senior advisor for National Security and Defense Walter Slocombe, Ambassador Barbara Bodine.
Of course, these might be names that mean nothing to the less politically inclined. Considering the film is out on DVD in a few weeks and hasn’t become a box office phenomenon in America, it seems nobody is watching. Doesn’t matter. Don’t listen to those who dismiss you by saying the Iraq issue is too complex or too uninteresting to try tounderstand. This is a film everybody should see, an austere and clear-eyed look at how things went wrong out of ignorance and incompetence. It’s a film that will leave you angry and unsettled.
