Movie: No End in Sight

This is a must see movie for everybody interested in the events surrounding the Iraq crisis and US occupation.

“No End in Sight” by director Charles Ferguson is the winner of the special jury price last year at the Sundance Film Festival and chosen by Stephen Hunter, Washington Post as #1 film of the year 2007. It’s available in full length online via Google Video.

Anybody who believes that nothing of that was known before the “war” should read the Atlantic Monthly Nov 2002 Edition (that was published before the war).

Various witnesses and officials have confirmed that anybody with experience - once the invasion happened - was considered “a liability” by the administration. This disregard for experience, skills, knowledge and any ethical values that made our countries great has since then massively propagated throughout other administrative entities around the world.

When I once asked a contemporary witness of Nazi Germany what was the most significant change when the Nazis came into power in 1933 for the administration and government services, he told me: “Suddenly the dumbest and most crookest ones made enormous careers and anybody with knowledge or experience was considered a liability and pushed aside.”

Since then I’ve learned that this is also a pretty good indicator if a country is under a totalitarian rulership. As an additional “litmus test” in such situations corruption normally skyrockets in parallel.

Click on the image below for for the link (multimedia)

From the film description at Google:
“…Chronological look at the fiasco in Iraq, especially decisions made in the spring of 2003 - and the backgrounds of those making decisions - immediately following the overthrow of Saddam: no occupation plan, an inadequate team to run the country, insufficient troops to keep order, and three edicts from the White House announced by Bremmer when he took over: no provisional Iraqi government, de-Ba’athification, and disbanding the Iraqi armed services. The film has chapters (from History to Consequences), and the talking heads are reporters, academics, soldiers, military brass, and former Bush-administration officials, including several who were in Baghdad in 2003…”

More information:
The Movie web site
A book on the topic: Imperial Life in the Emerald City
The Atlantic Monthly The Fifty-first State? (Cover story Nov. 2002 available without subscription)