No End in Sight, 4 stars
Charles Ferguson’s No End in Sight shows the non-military side of the occupation of Iraq. And the streams of mistakes made by misguided officials that continue to affect the lives of millions still.
This is a document film that doesn’t pull its punches. Bad decisions and their consequences are shown explicitly on screen. Unsurprisingly quite a few of the figures of authority refused to participate in the production - but some of the interviewed individuals are responsible for some of the worst policies. Whether they come off as badly deluded incompetents or staunch believers is left to the viewers to decide.
It is scary to see how amateurishly one of the biggest endeavours of the decade was undertaken - the people responsible for managing the occupied country were given next to nothing as tools. It’s noted that planning the occupation of Germany in the second world war was begun two years before the regime capitulated, in Iraq’s case the whole planning was done in fifty days by people who had no idea what they were doing.
The decision-making officials come off as arrogant and self-righteous. In Rumsfeld’s case that’s not really news to anyone. But the man whose handwriting is visible in the utter descent into chaos following the disbanding of the Iraqi army seems eerily convinced that he was doing the right thing. With no oversight in place, nor means to question authority, the policy was enacted as written - resulting rampant lawlessness that continues to this day.
As a movie No End in Sight is effective, it stalls momentarily a couple of times, but that’s to be expected given the complexity of the subject.
This great documentary film should be broadcast in the states just before one of the big presidential debates, to show exactly how and why the occupation is not going as planned.
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