No End in Sight—and Spiraling toward a Black Hole

Friday was opening night for the Sundance Prize-winning documentary, No End in Sight. Written and directed by Charles Ferguson, a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the film is one that can’t be discarded by critics as “one of those liberal anti-war films.” In fact, by interviewing an impressive array of high-level government officials, military personnel, academics, and journalists, the film uses the words of the very people who were involved in post-invasion policy to build the case for his main point: that bad U.S. policy during the post-invasion period caused the Iraqi insurgency that has since plunged the country deep into an abyss of chaos, death, and destruction.

Some highlights from the film:

• ORHA administrator General Jay Garner and Ambassador Barbara Bodine, tasked with reconstruction efforts and the creation of a new Iraqi government, tell of looted offices, scandalously insufficient staff, and nonexistent funds which, from the beginning, ensured their efforts would end in failure.
• Director of Strategic Policy for the U.S. Occupation Col. Paul Hughes describes how, after the invasion, Iraqi military commanders were literally knocking on his door offering the services of tens of thousands of Iraqi troops. Days later, Paul Bremer announced the dismantling of the Iraqi military and de-Bathification. Hundreds of thousands of young men were left without work. The Defense Department had not consulted anyone in making this decision.
• Robert Hutchings, Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, tells how, soon after the insurgency began, his Council produced a National Estimate on the State of the Insurgency, offering steps and suggestions for how to deal with the insurgency. He described his feeling of disappointment when the president did not read even the one-page summary on the report, calling it “guesswork.
• NGO Manager and Georgetown University Lecturer Ray Jennings illustrates the filling of green zone positions with inexperienced political supporters by telling a story of running into a recently graduated undergraduate student in Iraq. Upon expressing surprise at seeing her, she shared that she couldn’t believe her luck—just out of school, he had been put in charge of creating Baghdad’s entire traffic plan.
• Marine Lt. Seth Moulton describes how he and a fellow soldier worked with Iraqis on some rebuilding projects—while U.S.-funded contractors’ projects nearby were built shoddily and at a snail’s pace—for ten times the cost.

Despite the fact that the film assumes that with different policies, the war might have succeeded (which is debatable), it’s a film worth seeing. One compelling reason is for the simple fact that remembering and owning up to the mistakes of history is certainly necessary if there is any chance of things ever turning around. It is often said that the policymakers who make the biggest mistakes are the ones who forget history—who somehow begin acting as if current events happen in a vacuum, unconnected and removed from the context and history of the situations about which they are making policy. Identifying what has gone wrong and how it went wrong is an essential step in figuring out how to make things go right.

Some policymakers are urging our leaders to return to the assessments and recommendations that have long been available but largely ignored. This move to return to the Iraq Study Group report and recommendations is a positive step forward. Others are seeking out new experts. Some are calling for new words of wisdom from moral leaders. On June 28, fourteen Democrats sent a letter to the U.S. Catholic bishops urging them to speak out about Iraq anew. (They published previous messages in November and January.) The bishops have agreed to meet with the letter’s authors and have also requested a meeting with the Republicans, emphasizing that ending the war must be a bipartisan effort.

I hope that the Democrats and Republicans who meet with the bishops will be overwhelmed by a new sense of moral responsibility to end the war—quickly and responsibly. But I also hope they’ll watch this film. Putting this quagmire in context can’t hurt—and it might even help.

Posted by Jill Rauh, Education for Justice Project, Center of Concern

Comments

[lee Allen]

Every time I read something like this (usually at least once a day) I get this gnawing sense of regret for the last 7 years....the waste, destruction, death, and through it all, a president who refuses to even acknowledge that anything is amiss. How could a person of this detestable character ever have been visited upon us?

[Nick Kuhn]

The fact that the invasion was full of mistakes is not the most tragic thing about Iraq. It is that the invasion was wrong, immoral, and we were lied about from the get-go. Why do you not report those kind of facts and call the invasion itself tragic? Knowledge of that is what is likely to cause us to change our warped behavior. Avoiding mistakes is secondary, even though probably the result of manipulation on the part of our government, corporations who profit from war and the corporate controlled press who apparently still go along with the concept of the invasion. Maybe this brief and misleading report on history proves you are part of the manipulation that caused us to invade Iraq in the first place. The mistakes are bad enough, but we are much more guilty than that.

[Jill]

Nick, thanks for your comment. I absolutely agree with you that the invasion should never have taken place in the first place and was immoral. I make reference, about halfway through the blog, to the fact that it is quite uncertain that the invasion ever could have succeeded even IF carried out in a less clumsy way. The entry is absolutely not meant to disagree with those who argue that the invasion was immoral and absolutely should have never happened. I agree. However, No End in Sight is still a very helpful film (even if not addressing this basic question you bring up) because the fact is that even though we should not be, we ARE there, and now we have to deal with the mistakes others have made (entering in the first place--the biggest mistake, and then all the mistakes made afterwards) and figure out how to get out. No, we shouldn't be there. But we are, and now the most important thing we can do is ensure that our exit strategy is MUCH more responsible and much better thought out than our entrance one. If we don't take the history and context into consideration, we might (dare I imagine it) do even more damage.

[Robert Helfman]

The war is a fact, whether the premise was flawed for getting into it or not.

What remains is how to prcoeed with the present state of affairs as responsibly as possible.

Rolling back the clock won't work. So how to proceed? One could pray for the election of someone with the widom to proceed in a manner consistent with good policy and common sense.

Another factor needs to be taken into account, if we are to understand the full ramifications of this tragedy: 9/11 was the reason for the invasion of Iraq. It would have happened no matter what reason given, because a show of force was what the President and his military advisors felt necessary, under the circumstances.

Considering the shock to the Nation and the tragic loss of human life (I know personally of one person who lost her husband in the Twin Towers) one can understand why we are in Iraq. I personally do not think the action taken was a wise one; however, understanding why it occurred is.

There is a saying I will quote from the I CHING, or The Book of Changes (as a mystical Catholic): "WHEN EVIL IS BRANDED, IT THINKS OF WEAPONS".

As to whom this saying refers, in revealing the powers of darkness, CAVEAT EMPTOR. May God have mercy on us.
R. Helfman