Review of The Unknown Known (2013) by I C — 08 Aug 2014

The thing I find most interesting about this movie is the reviews. In a fairly universal chorus Errol Morris is described as a master documentarian (which is true) who is stuck with an elusive and crafty primary subject in Donald Rumsfeld (which also happens to true). The films reviewers go to great lengths to praise Morris but are not as friendly with Rumsfeld. They describe Rumsfeld as unrepentant, a sociopath, soulless, etc., etc. So the reviewers kind of expose their own agenda - they're clearly looking for tears, sorrow, and ultimately an apology. Anything short of Rumsfeld begging for his life is a failure. I'm sure I would agree with most of the critics that Iraq war was a colossal failure - both morally and strategically. But here's the news flash - Donald Rumsfeld doesn't agree. One should never forget Rumsfeld's underlying premiss (a premiss that Morris didn't to a great job of addressing) and that is that the Iraq war was justified. Any means necessary to unseat Saddam is acceptable. Anything that happens after that is colleratal damage to Rumsfeld. He would say "sure there was torture, sure there where mistakes, but that's the cost of war. War is unpredictable, but at the end of the day Saddam is gone and Iraq was freed" Debating Rumsfeld on points of torture, solider misconduct is pointless - he's starting from a different place than the rest of us. So while I disagree with him profoundly I'm not sure he's a sociopath.

The documentary shouldn't be watched to get an apology - you won't get one. But if you're curious about the man it's quite insightful.