Review of No End in Sight (2007) by Nathan Z — 26 Dec 2007

I live in constant hope that the US is one day able to produce a stunning, accurate documentary about how they eventually succeeded in rebuilding Iraq because all the latest ones demonstrating how they've cocked the whole thing up are getting downright scary.

No End In Sight is perhaps the most frightening of them all. This film really does leave you with the sense that the US powers-that-be had (and continue to have) absolutely no idea about what they're doing over there. How did the film makers accomplish this? Well, its simple - the movie doesn't consist of interviews of people, who knew people, who knew people, who once shared a beer with someone in the US State Dept. They actually interviewed some very high-up officials who were knee-deep in the problem from the beginning, from former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during some of 2003) and even Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell. All of these interviewees paint a very negative (and quite depressing) picture of what went on over there, what is still going on over there and what steps led to it being as bad as is is today.

What sticks in your mind as the credits roll is the word "accountability" and how nobody in the highest echelons of power had any. I honestly cannot believe they made some of the decisions they did, and my real-life combat experience is a mere 1 year of cadets at school (including 2 camps, one - fully 'tactical'). The left hand really didn't know (or care) what the right hand was doing.

I highly recommend seeing this film. Everybody should.