This film should be viewed by everyone who has any concern at all for what is happening in Iraq. It is a level headed and searing indictment of the American bungling of Iraq. No End In Sight demonstrates how the debacle which is current Iraq was not inevitable. It was the result of specific planning failures, and poor decisions.
The film showcases a series of people, most of whom were involved with ORHA, the first American administration of post-Saddam Iraq. These were dedicated professionals, with the best of intentions, but they were critically short on time, resources, and manpower. The bungling of planning on display here is inexcusable.
As the film goes on they lay out several reasons for why Iraq fell apart. These can be boiled down to essentially three major mistakes, all of which were compounded by poor planning and lack of resources: 1. Allowing order to break down. After the war the US allowed looters to tear apart the country. According to Donald Rumsfeld this was because "free people are free to commit crimes." The outcome of this, however, was to send a message to the Iraqi people that the US didn't care about maintaining order and protecting Iraqis and that they were unable to do so. Moreover many of the weapons which would later be used against American troops were looted from supply depots during this period.
2. The De-Bathification of Iraq. Lack of American knowledge of Iraq, and an obsession with outdated paradigms, led to the De-Baathification movement. Paul Bremer fired everyone who was a member of Saddam's Baath party and forbid them from being hired again by the government. The problem with this policy was that the Baathists were not all evil monsters. In fact the over whelming majority were simply civil servants who joined the Baath party because they needed to do so for their jobs. By firing the Baathists they removed just about anyone who knew how to run the country. They also angered tens of thousands of influential people who were now unemployed and unemployable.
3. The big mistake was refusing to recall the Iraqi Military. The film makes the point that, in many ways, the Iraqi Military was not defeated. They collapsed and melted back into society as the Americans advanced. The Iraqi Army was made up of ordinary Iraqis, not monsters. They fully expected to be recalled to make up the military of post-Saddam Iraq. Indeed, various American officials were in negotiations with officers to come back to work. These soldiers would have helped the Americans maintain order and would have removed the need for the US to train an army from scratch. Instead the Americans fired them all. Suddenly you had tens of thousands of men who were out of work, who had been trained to fight, and who, in many cases, still had their weapons. Almost immediately after the disbanding of the Army the attacks began on American soldiers. This was the fundamental mistake which gave birth to the insurgency.
This film should be viewed by every American, and if you come to it with an open mind you will go away enraged at the incompetence behind the Iraq War.
The film showcases a series of people, most of whom were involved with ORHA, the first American administration of post-Saddam Iraq. These were dedicated professionals, with the best of intentions, but they were critically short on time, resources, and manpower. The bungling of planning on display here is inexcusable.
As the film goes on they lay out several reasons for why Iraq fell apart. These can be boiled down to essentially three major mistakes, all of which were compounded by poor planning and lack of resources: 1. Allowing order to break down. After the war the US allowed looters to tear apart the country. According to Donald Rumsfeld this was because "free people are free to commit crimes." The outcome of this, however, was to send a message to the Iraqi people that the US didn't care about maintaining order and protecting Iraqis and that they were unable to do so. Moreover many of the weapons which would later be used against American troops were looted from supply depots during this period.
2. The De-Bathification of Iraq. Lack of American knowledge of Iraq, and an obsession with outdated paradigms, led to the De-Baathification movement. Paul Bremer fired everyone who was a member of Saddam's Baath party and forbid them from being hired again by the government. The problem with this policy was that the Baathists were not all evil monsters. In fact the over whelming majority were simply civil servants who joined the Baath party because they needed to do so for their jobs. By firing the Baathists they removed just about anyone who knew how to run the country. They also angered tens of thousands of influential people who were now unemployed and unemployable.
3. The big mistake was refusing to recall the Iraqi Military. The film makes the point that, in many ways, the Iraqi Military was not defeated. They collapsed and melted back into society as the Americans advanced. The Iraqi Army was made up of ordinary Iraqis, not monsters. They fully expected to be recalled to make up the military of post-Saddam Iraq. Indeed, various American officials were in negotiations with officers to come back to work. These soldiers would have helped the Americans maintain order and would have removed the need for the US to train an army from scratch. Instead the Americans fired them all. Suddenly you had tens of thousands of men who were out of work, who had been trained to fight, and who, in many cases, still had their weapons. Almost immediately after the disbanding of the Army the attacks began on American soldiers. This was the fundamental mistake which gave birth to the insurgency.
This film should be viewed by every American, and if you come to it with an open mind you will go away enraged at the incompetence behind the Iraq War.