No End in Sight

I recently watched the documentary No End In Sight, (The headline above is a link, click on it after you read this!) which examines the mistakes made by the Bush administration during the period following the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The film shows how these errors led to the insurgency via a lack of security (U.S. troops did not attempt to contain the looting as they were not instructed to) and as the country continued to be ravaged by its own inhabitants, many Iraqis lost access to basic utilities, food and jobs.

The Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) was the first group that went into newly occupied Iraq, where they discovered that they did not even have basics like offices, desks, phones ... you get the picture.   Jay Garner, who briefly ran the reconstruction effort before being replaced by Paul Bremmer, paints a picture of a ridiculous situation made worse by the day as Washington ignored all their intelligence and requests.  (They believe that George Bush never read any of the reports, for when he was questioned on them by reporters, accompanying his general blank look were the stammerings and utterings of the most lost fool.)

The film consists of interviews with the key people involved in the initial Iraqi occupation, many of them Bush loyalists who have since become disillusioned by what they experienced at the time.  The inexperience of the core members of the Bush administration and their refusal to seek, acknowledge or accept input from more experienced outsiders is really borderline (did I say borderline?) I mean to say it IS CRIMINAL.  We are talking about criminals, running our country.

There were three gigundo mistakes, led by L. Paul Bremer, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which replaced ORHA and Jay Garner.  But before we get to those, let's examine why Jay Garner was removed from his post.  For one, he did not agree with the White House about who should decide to reconstruct Iraq.  He wanted early elections -- 90 days after the fall of Baghdad, and for the new government to decide how and what to do with their assets.  Garner said "I don't think Iraqi's need to go by the U.S. plan, I think what we need to do is set an Iraqi government that represents the freely elected will of the people.  It's their country .... their oil."

(I actually can't believe that Garner is still alive.  But then again, this administration has learned that it is easy to do what you want, the people won't say boo.)

Bremer's plan included a move toward "De-Ba'thification," in the early stages of the occupation.  Saddam Hussein's ruling B'ath Party counted as its members a huge majority of Iraq's governmental employees, including educational officials and some teachers.  By order of the CPA, these skilled and ultimately apolitical individuals were banned from holding any positions in Iraq's new government.  (It was also pointed out in the film that many of these people were not necessarily sympathizers of the party -- they just needed to eat.)

Bremer also did not provide enough troops to maintain order.  The looting of Iraqi museums sent chilling signals to the average Iraqi, telling them that the American forces did not intend to maintain law and order.  And arms depots were available for pillaging by anyone who wanted weapons and explosives.  (Meaning they were not protected and ultimately fell into the hands of hungry, angry, frustrated and completely flummoxed countrymen.)

And lastly (and mind blowing insane) is that Bremer ordered the disbanding of the Iraqi Army, which made 500,000 young men with weapons and training unemployed and bitter.  Many of them decided that their best chance for a future was to join, or together with the rest of their unit, become a militia force.  (I assume the Bush administration expected them to sit by and watch their country fall apart.)

Rob Nelson of the Village Voice, wrote "Masterfully edited and cumulatively walloping, Charles Ferguson's No End In Sight turns the well-known details of our monstrously bungled Iraq war into an enraging, apocalyptic litany of fuckups."

He also wrote, "Focusing on the war itself, Ferguson is chiefly interested in compiling a filmed dossier of incompetence -- not so much to argue that the war could have been won, and won early, but to suggest that the magnitude of arrogant irresponsibility will carry aftershocks as far into the future as the mind can imagine."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars and said "This is not a documentary filled with anti-war activists or sitting ducks for Michael Moore.  Most of the people in the film were important to the Bush administration."

Ebert concluded, "No, I am distinctly not comparing anyone to Hitler, but I cannot help being reminded of the stories of him in his Berlin bunker, moving nonexistent troops on a map and issuing orders to dead generals."

It just gives me chills what has been taking place all these years.  WHY?  Why is it allowed to go on?  WHY is George Bush still president?  I just don't understand!  There is footage of Donald Rumsfeld (former secretary of state) laughing when reporters asked him questions pertaining to the above top three "issues."  Laughing!

Because the U.S. troops went in, not necessarily to fight a war with people they were "saving" but to aid them after removing their big mean leader, they were not prepared for ground combat.  When those 500,000 Iraqi men were released from their Army duties, they knew where all the weapons were stored and they hit the streets, well-armed, and began attacking US!  Yes, our young men and women who are over there in un-armored humvees fighting against an enemy created by their own fearless (inside White House doors anyway) leader.

Support Our Troops! became the cry.  Remember the flags, when it suddenly became very un-American not to be American?  Suddenly we had Americans dying (in the name of protecting our country from terror!) and we needed to support them.  And if anyone questioned the fact that there were NOT weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein had not actually had anything to do with 9/11 you were ANTI-AMERICAN.  Because by questioning the situation at hand, you were saying that our troops were over there FOR NO GOOD REASON and therefore, what?  You didn't care that they died?  What bullshit!

Rumsfeld said in December, 2004 in response to reporters inquiring as to why our troops were not outfitted properly:  "As you know, you go to war with the army you have.  They're not the army you might want or wish for at a later time."

What the hell is THAT?  Is anyone listening?  Anything that Michael Moore does is considered so slanted that it's not worth considering.  And yet ... YET! we let the Bush administration spoon feed us their lies and we swallow and turn our heads and choke it down.

Well, the way I see it, anyone that is labeled a quack, a conspiracy theorist, a nut job, a right wing nut, a left wing sissy ... is someone I want to listen to!  If the mainstream media hates and dismisses Michael Moore as ridiculous, then we need to pay more attention to what he is saying.  I mean, Support Our Nuts!  It would be anti-American not to!

Moore wrote this letter to the Democratic party in November of 2006.  I will include the link to the entire letter as well.  

"Monday, November 27th (2006) marked the day that we had been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II."

(Lisa note: Also pointed out in the movie was that before the U.S. occupied Germany, it had spent over two years putting together a reconstruction plan.  Before the U.S. occupied Iraq, they had been planning for FIFTY DAYS.)

"That's right." (Moore continues) "We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it's taken the world's only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.  

"And we haven't even done THAT.  After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the South Pacific and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 1/2 years (that's FOUR now), even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade device of two tin cans placed in a pothole.

"Is this utter failure the fault of our troops?  Hardly.  That's because no amount of troops or choppers or democracy shot out of the barrel of a gun is ever going to "win" the war in Iraq.  It is a lost war, lost because it never had a right to be won, lost because it was started by men who have never been to war, men who hide behind others sent to fight and die.

"So I don't want to hear another word about sending more troops (wake up, America, John McCain is bonkers) or "redeploying" them, or waiting four months to begin the "phase-out."  There is only one solution and it is this:  Leave. Now.  Start tonight.  Get out of there as fast as we can.  As much as people of good heart and conscience don't want to believe this, as much as it kills us to accept defeat, there is nothing we can do to undo the damage we have done.  What's happened has happened.  If you were to drive drunk down the road and killed a child, there would be nothing you could do to bring that child back to life.  If you invade and destroy a country, plunging it into a civil war, there isn't much you can do 'til the smoke settles and blood is mopped up.  Then maybe you can atone for the atrocity you have committed and help the living come back to a better life.

"Apologize to our soldiers and make amends.  Tell them we are sorry they were used to fight a war that had NOTHING to do with our national security.  We must commit to taking care of them so that they suffer as little as possible.  The mentally and physically maimed must get the best care and significant financial compensation.  The families of the deceased deserve the biggest apology and they must be taken care of for the rest of their lives.

"We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq.  There are few evils worse than waging a war based on a lie, invading another country because you want what they have buried under the ground.  Now many more will die.  Their blood is on our hands, regardless for whom we voted.  If you pay taxes, you have contributed to the three billion dollars a week now being spent to drive Iraq into the hellhole it's become.  When the civil war is over, we will have to help rebuild Iraq.  We can receive no redemption until we have atoned.

"In closing there is one final thing I know.  We Americans are better than what has been done in our name.  A majority of us were upset and angry after 9/11 and we lost our minds.  We didn't think straight and we never looked at a map.  Because we are kept stupid through our pathetic education system and our lazy media, we knew nothing of history.  We didn't know that WE were the ones funding and arming Saddam for many years, including those when he massacred the Kurds.  He was our guy. We didn't know what a Sunni or a Shiite was, never even heard the words.  Eighty percent of our young adults were not able to find Iraq on the map.  Our leaders played off our stupidity, manipulated us with lies and scared us to death."

To read this in its entirety go to: MichaelMoore.com : Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do ...a letter from Michael Moore

There many not be enough bytes in cyberspace to catalog all the wrongs of the Bush Administration.  It is mind boggling to delve into this quagmire of mistruths and bungling.  Really, the only thing to be positive about in regards to government is that he didn't override term limits -- because I'm not so sure he wouldn't scam another election.

We, THE PEOPLE, have a weapon of mass destruction in our midst -- and his name is George W. Bush.

According to the Associated Press, at least 3,931 members of the U.S. military have died in this war.  There are currently 158,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and about 28,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan.  

And according to statistics compiled by the Iraq Body Count organization, between 80,621-88,044 civilians have been killed since the occupation.

It almost makes Osama bin Laden seem kind.