Work lasted into the late evening last night. After a nap I got up and watched the second part of Frontline's Bush's War series on streaming video from the WGBH website. [What a nice site that is.]
It was informative, seemed well supported, and is well made too.
So with that in mind, and with the official totals over 4,000 dead now and some 30,000 wounded just on the US side, I'd like to take a look at what I saw as shortcomings in the documentary. Let's jump.
I liked Part 1 very much but was left a touch leery by the 2 dimensional way Bush was presented. The President had to have some sort of pre-disposed view about Iraq and Saddam. This has been mentioned before, usually in the context of the Rebuilding America's Defenses Plan pdf from the PNAC, which the President's brother, Jeb, had a hand in.
(Simple Googling brings up some 2 million plus entries for Bush, Saddam, 2000, and 420 more [mainly from wingnut and right wing sources including, oddly enough, Al Gore's You Tube clip attacking Bush the Elder for not taking out Saddam in 1991.] if you type in Bush, Saddam, pre-2000.)
No, the lead-in to the Iraq calamity was not all wrangle from Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Tenet. Chimpy had to have some input into this. He was not sitting there like the Oracle, nor blameless in the run-up to the launching of this awful adventure.
Part 2, seemed to handle this better, and it showed me a combination personality that is at once wavering, yet determined too, but swept along by events he could have stopped by really digging in. But, in fairness, it should be noted that Rummy's "Short War" plans seemed to collide with Winger/neo-conservative voices who were screaming in the press and on the net for long war victory when this apparently was never what Rummy and Dick wanted and I was astonished to see that Bush just seemed to go along for the ride, swept along by events like the debris cloud of a tornado. Where was Rove in this mess, especially when the political fallout became so dangerously "radioactive" for Bush's friends on The Hill?
Did you see the transition from the "patrol/control/return-to-base" stategy to "clear-hold-build?" That was the complete end of the short war idea. I think Frontline gives the short shrift to the incredible cost of "clear-hold-build" in terms of 2007 casualties and expenditures, and the leadership tumult that has led to the rise of Petreaus as well as the importance of Sadr's cease fire in making the "Surge/escalation" work for awhile.
The presentation of Sadr as some sort of malevolent character, much like the introductory fellow in "The Power of Nightmares" rising from his chair looking frightful, seems off-key. If we look at it from an Iraqi perspective, Sadr is an Iraqi patriot, opposed to the occupation of his country by an alien power. That he is political is incidental, that he is Shia is also incidental. What is consequential has been the way we have treated Sadr, and Sistani too for that matter. I think Frontline also gave this the short shrift. "Sadr=enemy/thug/criminal/murderer" has been short-sighted from day one. If we have learned anything over there it has been that the first 2 people you want to meet are the tribal chief and the mullah/imam, not always in that order, and not all of them are nice people, and Frontline seems to leave this out.
My ROTFLMAO moment in "Bush's War" was the way the media talking heads, [I think it was Tom Ricks mainly] came off sounding flabbergasted that the Iraqi Shias would vote for "Mullah-crats" and not for the fellas we were backing. Who in hell did anyone out there think was going to win elections in Iraq, post-Saddam, if 90% of the Sunnis stayed away from the polls? The short-sightedness of RummyCo, and the neo-cons, and the Bush/Cheney/Republican Political axis in this is utterly astonishing.
But in all, you all really need to take the time and watch both parts of this fine documentary.
My complaints are small, but I was disappointed that voices like Dahr Jamail, Ali al-Fadhily, Ahmed Ali, and the teams from al Jazeera who were "boots on the ground, outside the 'Green Zone' were not interviewed. Only the 'tradmed' seemed to get the mike and camera, and then we were treated to heavy doses of Michael Gordon and Liz Bumiller; people who helped sell this pig-in-a-poke to the American public.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by and have a great day, and be sure to see Frontline if you haven't seen it yet.