No end in sight
Now playing in New York and Washington D.C. and opening “everywhere” later this month, NO END IN SIGHT is the story of the American occupation of Iraq. The film explains how a military victory in 2003 descended into a seemingly endless nightmare of war.
Political scientist and first-time director Charles Ferguson in not a propagandist, and his film is not a left-wing tract. It is an attempt to chronicle U.S. policy decisions, told by the people who implemented or advised on them.
Ferguson’s camera captures the candid recollections of high-level insiders including former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; Ambassador Barbara Bodine, in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003; Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell; and General Jay Garner, in charge of the occupation through May 2003.
Interspersed with these interviews, footage shot in Iraq shows what life is like on the ground for Iraqi civilians and American soldiers as the country spins into chaos.
NO END IN SIGHT somberly chronicles the principal initial errors of U.S. policy in Iraq: insufficient troop levels; allowing the looting of Baghdad; purging professionals from the Iraqi government; and disbanding the Iraqi army. With relentless logic, the film shows how Iraq descended into insurgency, warlord rule, criminality, and the anarchy that now borders on civil war.
It also reveals how the advice of military commanders and strategic analysts—advice that might have saved Iraq—was consistently ignored or trivialized by a small cadre of ideologues who thought they knew better.
NO END IN SIGHT offers much truth and little hope. It is a glimpse into a terrifying abyss—and a film every grown-up American should see.
Tags: noendinsight, iraq, war, charlesferguson
Filed under: film, war, peace, and justice
This looks really interesting, I can’t wait for it to open in Atlanta.
I was listening to the HBR podcast and they interviews a fellow who mentioned that the administration intentionally ignored Vietnam because they said we lost it so nothing could be learned. I was, as you can imagine, floored that such simple wisdom like, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it,” was foreign to our foreign policy. I’ll have to check this film out.
Now that the blog has started talking politics you’ve completely lost me as a reader - for good. The feed is now deleted. How can this possibly fall under “web design news & info”?
Are you serious? You had to say that you were dropping the blog? IF you are a for the war and can’t take any criticism of the war then I feel bad for you. But, even if that were the case, there was no need to post that you were leaving the blog. I don’t care and I am pretty sure there are other readers who don’t care that you are leaving.
PS: I doubt you leave.
On topic: Good tip Jeffrey…(it’ll be a while longer before this shows up in the UK). I’ll try to watch it at some point though.
Off-topic (slightly): Lu Sancea - whoa, easy there tiger! I mean, I’ll agree - maui’s comment does seem a bit pointless, but he’s just venting some frustration - he expected web-stuff…instead there’s politics…free-speech on the web and all that!
but…
maui: Yeah, it’s not web stuff in this particular post…but this site is Jeffrey’s own blog for his thoughts about things too (even got his name in the URL)…so I don’t see anything wrong with him writing about political matters every once in awhile…he can write about whatever he wants right? Next week, I expect a post about post about the ‘new Google phone’ or maybe how ‘Facebook won’t be the new Microsoft’…but, it could just be about something political.
@maui, you won’t see this, but some things are more important than “web design news & info.”
Whoa! That’s not the first time you’ve provided commentary on something other than web design news & info. Perhaps some people need to cut back on the caffeine…
Terry: Totally!
Jeffrey: “…but some things are more important than ‘web design news & info.’ ”
No - say it ain’t so!!!! :D
Jeffrey said: “but some things are more important than ‘web design news & info.’”
If I just wanted that, I’d read ALA and avoid this blog. This blog is where Jeffrey, for better or worse, posts those things that are on his mind. Often those things are “web design news & info” because that’s often on his mind, but that’s not all he thinks about.
You should see how all over the map my blog is…
SEO Experiment on how Google handles Javascript
Philly Ready-to-eat cheesecake filling
The Physics of Dick Cheney
It sounds like an interesting look at historical events.
On a related topic, the film’s website is all flash and doesn’t seem to be W3C valid!
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fnoendinsightmovie.com%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0
Last I checked, this was your personal blog. Not happy cog. Not A Apart. Not any “* Apart”.
Post away to your hearts delight—akin to dancing like no one is watching!
Damn that was supposed to read:
Charles Ferguson may not a be propagandist, but it is obvious from the preview that he set out to make an anti-Bush film. And to what end? To show that the Bush Admin made mistakes in Iraq. Wow! That’s a revelation. I still seriously doubt that Gore or Kerry would/could have done a better job.
off-topic (but now that it has been mentioned by more than 2 people, isn’t it on-topic?): I’m thankful for bloggers (especially those who have been doing it for longer than some people recognize) when they post information that shows the personal side of their lives.
I read regularly, seldom comment, but this particular post from maui was quite uninformed. Of all that I am afforded in life, free speech is a keeper.
The documentary looks fantastically well done, and fascinating to see. I can only hope it will come out in the UK at all though. I can’t find any mention of that happening so far… :(
Damn right! ;)
I won’t go so far as “maui”, and very well might check out this film, but I do hope that zeldman.com doesn’t become excessively political — especially as we approach the 2008 US elections. I live in Washington, DC and I look to web design blogs as one way to avoid all the political clamor around me.
I can only say one thing and it might not be much. There’s too many CHIEFS and not enough INDIANS! No offence to anyone, just an old saying. Too many cooks spoil the broth! But then, is there anyone in politics that is wise enough to do a good job. probably not. Iraq needs to stand on its own feet sometime. I’m not saying right now,but soon. We could be there for 20 years and they will still do what they want after we leave.
@Dean Collins: It’s not that the Bush Admin made mistakes in Iraq, it’s what mistakes the Bush Admin made in Iraq that is the point of the movie. And if it is an anti-Bush film, then we sure could use more of those. I, for one, plan to see it.
@Jeffrey: Speak you mind, sir, and let the tongues wag!
Let’s get real here. Maui is not upset because this post ain’t web-related. He didn’t post about his impending departure when Jeff wrote about the iPhone or about the explosion in NYC. Jeff deviates from the supposed point all the time. The problem for Maui is that he doesn’t share the opinion of those who recognize that the so-called greatest nation can have flawed foreign policy from time to time. I heartily doubt that he would have taken offense if jeff’s opinion had been more in harmony with his own.
I don’t quite know why I am responding to this post. Other than GWB jr and his fathers friends have sold out America. It is hard for me to speak of the crap he has done without getting upset. He and business associates are treasonist bastards with a myopic perspective.
Good film Jeffrey.
Let’s “get real”? Please. The REAL reason Maui is jumping off this blog, is that his albino half-cousin was abducted by extraterrestrial siamese twins on there way to the Brockian Ultra-Cricket match.
I don’t even know if Maui is a “he”, and neither does 99% of those who’ve read this far. Who cares? Maui did what maui did. You only add to the ridiculous if you claim to know the truth. You make as many similar blunders as a certain, more-on-topic film points out, and it gets us nowhere, either here or there.
Mr. Zeldman, I’m sorry. I’ll stay away, or on topic from now on.
JA
NO END IN SIGHT somberly chronicles the principal initial errors of U.S. policy in Iraq: insufficient troop levels; allowing the looting of Baghdad; purging professionals from the Iraqi government; and disbanding the Iraqi army.
Nonsense, Jeffrey. The “principal initial error of U.S. policy in Iraq” was invading Iraq in the first place, when it served no clear strategic purpose whatsoever, and, in fact, manifestly made American strategic objectives in the region harder to achieve.
The “good idea, pursued badly” take on the needless war of choice the United States prosecuted in Iraq is as pernicious and intellectually dishonest as any of the increasingly nonsensical justifications the Administration spews. No End In Sight may accurately relate the sad consequences of the US involvement in Iraq, for all parties, but it irresponsibly muddies what should be the central historical point: the US had no business being there in the first place.
No, sorry, I apologize: that was intemporate. My blood boils, though, when I think of everything human and material and intangible that’s been squandered in this enterprise.
I shouldn’t be taking that out on you.
“Intemperate,” even.
Adam: ….’the US had no business being there in the first place.’
That might be the case - please tell anyone in world politics who is going to listen to what you have to say.
Will they admit to it? Probably not.
Will they care? Doubtful.
Are power-politics issued via total force more important than human life in cash-rich, oil field center of the world? The American government has already made your decision for you. How will you vote in the next election eh?
Joe Dempsey, Sr. - I’m sure you guys will be fighting to get to the front of the line to see yet another Bush hate fest. Maybe y’all can split a large pop corn.
I’m not going to remove this feed even though I don’t like discussing politics.
And, I still like your stuff.
“web design news & info.” Maybe if you add a comma (i.e. “web design, news & info” people wouldn’t be so surprised.
Keep up the good work.
It is time we tell the truth.
When I mailed Glenn Reynolds instapundit.com to stop sending out lies before the invasion, there was radio silence.
Some people now waking up late makes me feel that perhaps there is still hope in the US. and everyone from the the web has the duty to react. But it is too late.
The hope is thin, though, since you all still drive cars and make a lot of money enabling you to converse with neo-con conspirators not knowing who you drive with or work for who make money from death and destruction.
It is a sorry sight to see the USA going down this way.
Democracy is all about discussing things publicly, that means being open to learn something new from anywhere you can. I commend your post. I cannot understand the apparent inability of some people to look openly at things, namely that discussing US Policy in Iraq does not automatically mean disloyalty to the US, to Bush, to US troops or the Constitution. Such an approach smacks of “reds under the bed” and McCarthyism.
Surely the prime qualities of a US President are to be a good manager, good at picking people to delegate to, a good listener and experienced in World Affairs. You might be able to wing it on all of these but for world affairs; its a pity Bush junior wasn’t as worldy as his ex CIA director dad. “The Best and the Brightest” illustrated that you can have the best managers of a generation but still get it horribly wrong. If only all US Presidents had a PHD in US Foreign Relations.
- which has a limited U.S. release - can be thought of as a brief in a paternity suit, offering an emphatic, well-supported answer to a question that has already begun to be mooted on television talk shows and in journals of opinion: Who lost Iraq?Jeffrey Zeldman: Political scientist and first-time director Charles Ferguson in not a propagandist, and his film is not a left-wing tract. It is an attempt to chronicle U.S. policy decisions, told by the people who implemented or advised on them.
Replacement of Saddam Hussein’s autocracy with
something better probably was a worthy enough
goal, but the mechanism of doing that was, indeed,
flawed from the beginning. Even with a misguided
start, the post-Saddam era could have been managed
in ways that would have been constructive. But,
clearly that was not the case. That phase was
managed with arrogance and cultural naivete
(read, insensitivity and ignorance). America’s
reputation in the world has been seriously damaged.
Do I have to wait for this to come to a theater to
see it? Colleagues and I have established a nonpartisan,
nonsectarian, nonprofit Institute in our rural area
to bring information and understanding to our group
and our neighbors. There is no theater very near
here. How can we get a copy of this film to show
locally?