Had the best of American and allied talent, including Iraqi's, been involved in this venture over an extended period of pre-planning - probably years - better things could have been achieved.
The political judgement, the global understanding, the cultural sensitivity, the skills of governance, the necessary linguistic abilities exist among Americans and her allies in abundance, but that managerial and technocratic intelligence - one of America's strengths - was kept away from Iraq or, when allowed limited access, were hobbled by appalling political leadership reliant on inexperienced, myopic placemen and favourites. Bush has created a climate of stupidity that bears no relationship to the America I know.
I'm not criticising the innocence and naivety for which some American's are teased. Such qualities are siblings to enthusiasm, open-heartedness, creativity, and willingness to learn fast. This presidency muzzled those qualities - abilities most needed in circumstances of such complexity and novelty. I agree with Rumsfeld that the problems of post-occupation Iraq were the 'unknown unknowns'. That was insightful, but then he proceeded to celebrate ignorance, encouraging brain-surgery with a coal chisel. God help us if this man and others like him had overseen the drive for the reconstruction of Europe and Japan after WW2. Bush privileged an American version of David Low's ludicrously lethal Colonel Blimp.
I can't imagine that any other power could have deployed the political-technical skills needed to reconstruct Iraq yet Bush and his henchman have stifled the genius of their own countrymen and those who agreed Sadaam must go. He barred from Iraq those ready to learn amid great uncertainty. He avoided any dialogue that did not fit his grossly over-simplified world-view. His government silenced a rich array of experienced talent - in the US, among her allies and in Iraq. Bush has betrayed Iraqis. He has blighted the reputation of America among her greatest friends. The brave young US marine officer quoted at the end of 'No End in Sight' is quoted saying "That's the best America can do? Don't tell me that's the best America can do. That makes me angry." He is entitled to his anger and disappointment.
Wow, what a fantastic film!!!! Finally, unanswered questions (and in many cases unasked questions by mainstream media) answered. Thank you so much to all involved in producing and getting to air.
It very clearly explained just how and why Iraq went so wrong. I often wondered why so many of the world’s highest regarded Military people were unable to do a better job.
I am appalled how the inner core of Bush's regime (a hand full of people) are allowed to get away with an illegal war and promoting the destruction of all of Iraq's infrastructure, history, policing abilities, Military capabilities, freedom, utilities, industry, employment and so on... The invasion and following strangulation of the country has created a full scale mess.
Is there any more programs looking at how we can hold those responsible for these outrageous act accountable? They MUST be made accountable, it must be made public, the rest of the corporate media MUST catch up!
This documentary does not highlight the incompetency of the Bush Administration. Incompetency is an excuse. What this documentary does is highlight the cold and calculated nature by which this War was fabricated, controlled and allowed to turn into the complete debacle that was expected by the administration. ORHA was never meant to be able to do anything, it was no mistake that they had 4 people working with summer exchange students on rebuilding Iraq. They were there for show and their absolute lack of power has been recorded in history. So why bother ceating ORHA at all? To be seen to be doing something is most likely reason. Lets face it, who are America held accountable to? Nobody. All the promises of helping Iraq were unequivocable lies, so what is the true goal of the administration? That they create and maintain the suffering of so many people including their own soldiers, highlights a harsh and inhumane streak in their mission objectives. These people need to be removed, and not by an election. The administration acts as if it has a golden ticket and when challenged simply replies with either ignorance, arrogance, flipancy, petulance, fearmongering, and so so sickening, the blatant lies that are etched on every crevice of their faces and in every nuance of their voice. I mean seriously, when Rumsfeld, Bush or Cheney are answering questions in press conferences, they are spoken in stuttered hesistancy and ambiguous to the point of being absolutely pointless. Empty drivel, contrary to all documented findings, answers the important questions that are asked of them. They cannot be trusted, and that is the only truth. The greatest superpower should not be in the hands of people of this character.
Civil rights in America have been shot out the window and while this mightn’t be too evident in current daily proceedings, there may be a time in the future when the true reason for the Patriot Acts will come to the front and by then it will be too late to change. There are some good factual documentaries worth considering, highlighting the World Government scenario (Aaron Russo- Freedom to Fascism is but one) which David Rockefella (owner of the PRIVATELY OWNED Federal Reserve bank that pumps billions of dollars into the american government - from thin air), has went on record by saying "we will have one world government". Most people hear “conspiracy” and “illuminati” and they shirk at this idea and laugh off the possibility claiming "they wouldn’t let that happen", but for all the good intentions of the intelligent, caring, decent human beings that tried to stop or least shorten the war in Iraq, they were ultimately powerless. Bush might be an idiot but he’s not alone in the decision making process, in fact he’s probably excluded from most decision making as he rarely has a firm grasp on what is going on! So the playing dumb act is not sufficient anymore, where has the responsibility gone? Rumsfeld resigning? Wow didn’t see that coming, he was the principle bringer-of-false-news and it was no surprise that he got the boot, scapegoated as if that that makes up for the myriad of people behind the false information propagation. I don't like using expletives but this regime is bordering on evil, the value of human life has become less than the value of something else, what that is pure speculation, be it oil, money, world government, but WHATEVER it is, it still takes precedence over human life. That really saddens me and makes me very angry.
Such clarity and clear delivery - it is so rare to hear this information without it swimming in political spin. Excellent, tragic confirmation of what I imagine most of us have become aware of - that the invasion was poorly conceived by fools.
Thank you More4 for showing this - it is invaluable and I wish it could reach everyone.
