Documentary filmmakers in the Iraq War era have been occupying the same position that pop musicians had during the Vietnam War: questioning the war and bringing the debate into a public forum. At this late date, it might sound like overkill to propose that another documentary is an urgent recap of the Iraq War, but “No End in Sight” is indeed urgent.
The movie comes from a first-time director, Charles Ferguson, who has previously been a political science scholar and digital technology guy. Actor Campbell Scott narrates, and his customarily calm, flat voice sets the tone for a similarly measured film.
“No End in Sight” gives a history of the war, often with familiar clips of President Bush declaring the end of combat operations on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, or Dick Cheney describing the last throes of the insurgency (in 2005).
What’s new is the roster of political and military professionals who speak on camera about the mistakes made by the Bush folks, especially the mistakes made in administrating Iraq after Saddam Hussein was deposed.
The saddest testimony comes from people assigned to run the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (hurriedly assembled before the war began), the planners for the new democratic Iraq. These include retired Gen. Jay Garner, who headed up the chaotic operation, until the ORHA was abruptly replaced by the Coalition Provisional Authority under Paul Bremer.
Ferguson lays out a case about negligence during the period of widespread looting that followed the fall of the dictator. This is the event that prompted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to observe, “Stuff happens” – a quote not quite at the level of Louis XVI, but close.
The film is especially detailed in talking about Bremer’s early decisions, especially the disbanding of the Iraqi Army, a move the film says was made without consulting the military or the State Department. Ferguson strongly suggests that this had a devastating effect, throwing an enormous number of young Iraqi men into unemployment and creating antipathy toward the U.S.
All of this comes out in film clips and the statements of the talking heads. Clearly, some of these people are former Bush administration employees who now regret their actions (or lack of action, in many cases).
Perhaps the most intriguing voices come from assistants to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. They are openly critical of the Cheney-Rumsfeld plan, but it makes you wonder what their former boss thinks – Powell having remained mostly quiet since departing the Bush White House.
George W. Bush himself is a kind of non-presence in the movie, since Cheney and Rumsfeld are depicted as the architects of the war.
There is much that is depressing about all this, even the glancing observations along the way (the Iraq War has strengthened Iran’s position in the Middle East, for instance, by destabilizing its longtime enemy). Still, see the movie.
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