"No End In Sight"

In the opening scene of Charles Ferguson's documentary No End In Sight Donald Rumsfeld stands behind a podium and opines that only history will be the judge of the war in Iraq. This movie is one of a bevy of recent documentaries that constitute the first draft of that history, and the early word is about as bad as you can imagine. Fueled by his own outrage, political scientist and first-time director Chris Ferguson winds fact-wise through the invasion and the early days of the occupation. He treats us to a side-by-side comparison of two startlingly different versions of events: the official line, as dispensed from press-briefing podiums by the president and Donald Rumsfeld; and the damning testimony given by the people who were actually in Iraq. Just about every frame adds a new and ever more sick-making revelation of the arrogance and incompetence with which we have conducted this war. Worse, it didn't have to be this way.

Of course all hindsight is 20-20, and Ferguson's movie has been justifiably accused of tendentiousness. Even so, it's hard not to be swayed. Ferguson traces the administration's narrative using archival news footage; in and of itself, the cocksure-ness on display is startling. He then contrasts this version of events with dozens of interviews he conducted with current and former civil servants, journalists, soldiers, and Iraqis, including Richard Armitage, Barbara Bodine, Jay Garner, Paul Hughes, Walter Slocombe, and George Packer. Most heartbreaking are the stories told by Garner, Hughes, and Bodine, who were all but helpless witnesses to the destructive decisions handed down from Washington. During these early days, the Iraqi people were willing to wait and see: they had not yet turned against our presence there. It's difficult to remember from this far distance, but No End in Sight reminds us that regardless of whether we should have gone to Iraq in the first place, there just might have been a right way to conduct this war once we started it.

The entire movie is posted on Google Video. I embedded it above, though if you don't see it, your browser might not have the latest version of Flash Player. Click on the lower right of the video to watch it in full screen, or click here to go to Google Video. If you're having trouble, try switching to another browser, too. Enjoy.