August 01, 2007 10:41 PM
LIVE CHAT TOMORROW: <i>No End In Sight</i>
(Guest blogged by Howie Klein)
Tomorrow NO END IN SIGHT, one of the most intense and informative films on the Iraq war and occupation, opens in the L.A. area (Pasadena, Orange County and L.A. proper). It has already been showing-- to rave reviews-- in DC and New York City. And next Friday it opens nationwide. Tomorrow at 11 am Pacific/2 pm Eastern, the film's director, writer and producer, Charles Ferguson, will be doing an EXCLUSIVE live chat here at Crooks and Liars.
Please watch the riveting preview and think about taking part in the discussion.
It's great to see documentaries like this getting such wide distribution.
Looks like a very good film, can't wait to see it.
2001 Spaced Odyssey
http://www.cinematographers.nl/GreatDoPh/Films/2001-Alcott3.jpg
Saw it last week in DC. They had a Q&A after and Congressman Moran from Virginia was there. He stood up and spoke harshly about bush and cheney. I highly recommend seeing the film.
I saw this movie last Friday in DC it quite good. Afterwards one of the producers and two of the people in the movie took questions and answers. Congressman James Moran of Northern Virginia was there in the audience and lambasted Bush for the war and also said Cheney's energy task force was almost all about the coming invasion and what to do with the oil since China and Russia and France had oil contracts and our oil companies wanted them out of the picture.
The movie lays out many of the mistakes made by the Bush Administration and they are laid out by the people who were desperately trying to make things work, but to no avail. Don't miss this one.
My husband and I went to see No End in Sight in DC last weekend and it is INSPIRATIONAL. And Maddening!! Most of the persons interviewed in the film were new to us and we have followed this story very closely. Hearing and seeing their frustration and anguish as decisions were made, plans set in motion without being fleshed out...was heartwrenching. These were people who had many years of EXPERIENCE doing Post Invasion Reconstruction Planning and Implementation in other places and they were called on with inadequate time and virtually no resources. Then the movie gets in to who made some of the horrific decisions - deBaathification, disbanding the Army, etc. and there are some interesting confrontations in follow-up interviews with those who were brave enough to participate. We drove two hours to the theatre to see it and it was well worth it and we plan to see it again, even if we have to drive back to DC to see it! It's a great way to get fired up for the upcoming September marches, for which we will also travel to DC wearing our little black ribbons to mourn not just our men and women, but the IRAQI men, women, and children as well.
congrats on the chat. You guys are getting all the great exclusives
"You go to war with the Army you got."
by Don Rumsfeld... What an ASSHOLE!
I saw it last night in NYC and it is an absolute must-see. It never questions why any of the interviewees accepted their assignments or actually believed that Iraq could be rebuilt relatively quickly. As much as I liked Col. Paul Hughes' barbs with Mr. Slocomb, he was still a loyal member of the Bush regime. But still, what he has to say fills-in a lot of gaps in the story as we have struggled to follow it in the last 4 years.
You know how a big episode of 'Lost' fills-in some juicy gaps? This movie is like that. See it.
Yes, the occupation of Iraq has been a clusterfuck from start to finish. But look on the bright side . . .
It's the wrong stinkin' country!
www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
I have a feeling that this film has to have the wrong side's undies in a knot....waiting to see the film 1st and the outcome.........
watched the preview..............speechless.
I'll have to buy this when it comes out on DVD, because it will never be shown in my little red town. They can't handle the truth. I know for all of us who watched this train wreck of the invasion in Iraq, like it was in agonizing slow motion and we couldn't stop it, it will be a painful experience of deja vu, because we knew how it would turn out, but I still can't believe how gawd-awful it has all become.
I hope I get some time off work to at least check in on the discussion. Good work, C&L.
Wasn't this serialized, at least in part, on "NOW" a while back?
Slocomb is the only one from the dark side who agreed to be in the movie. He looks like Les Tremayne from the 50s sci fi movies, and he has this smirking quality initially as though he is way too smart to fall for anything. By the end he looks rather concerned. The virtual exchanges between Huges and Slocomb mediated by Ferguson are right at the heart of the movie and extremely riveting.
I have said here and elsewhere that this movie has the potential to push people off the fence and perhaps move this congress to a vetoproof majority that can end the war. See it and tell any of your moderate or conservative friends (leave the lizard brains out) to see it as well. Look forward to the q&a with Ferguson.
Sounds good. Thanks C&L.
Can't wait to see it. I hope it makes its way to Richmond, Va.
thank you crooks and liars from atlanta, ga!!!
No End In Sight (NEIS) is a "must" see for everyone, particularly every member of congress, and those in the west wing, IMHO! i hope keith olbermann and others in the MSM start creating word of mouth for NEIS. it will be nominated for an academy award and incontrovertibly deserves to win.
please contact your local democratic party or whatever organization you belong to and arrange a screening in your town, inviting your elected official from congress to participate in a discussion. congressman moran is a courageous hero and is also sponsoring H. R. Res. 333 to impeach cheney.
plain text from the NEIS web site below describing the film:
The first film of its kind to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, criminality and anarchy, NO END IN SIGHT is a jaw-dropping, insider’s tale of wholesale incompetence, recklessness and venality. Based on over 200 hours of footage, the film provides a candid retelling of the events following the fall of Baghdad in 2003 by high ranking officials such as:
former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage,
Ambassador Barbara Bodine (in charge of Baghdad during the Spring of 2003),
Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and
General Jay Garner (in charge of the occupation of Iraq through May 2003)
as well as Iraqi civilians, American soldiers, and prominent analysts.
NO END IN SIGHT examines the manner in which the principal errors of U.S. policy – the use of insufficient troop levels, allowing the looting of Baghdad, the purging of professionals from the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi military – largely created the insurgency and chaos that engulf Iraq today.
How did a group of men with little or no military experience, knowledge of the Arab world or personal experience in Iraq come to make such flagrantly debilitating decisions? NO END IN SIGHT dissects the people, issues and facts behind the Bush Administration’s decisions and their consequences on the ground to provide a powerful look into how arrogance and ignorance turned a military victory into a seemingly endless and deepening nightmare of a war.
“I think this decision to disband the [Iraqi] Army came as a surprise to most of us…”
Q: What was your reaction?
“I thought we had just created a problem. We had a lot of out of work [Iraqi] soldiers.”
– our interview with Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State
NO END SIGHT alternates between U.S. policy decisions and Iraqi consequences, systematically dissecting the Bush Administration’s decisions.
The consequences of those decisions now include 3,000 American deaths and 20,000 American wounded, Iraq on the brink of civil war, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths, the strengthening of Iran, the weakening of the U.S. military, and economic costs of over $2 trillion.
It marks the first time Americans will be allowed inside the White House, Pentagon, and Baghdad’s Green Zone to understand for themselves what has become the disintegration of Iraq.
~~~~~~~
Yeah, invading Iraq was a bad idea. Yeah, even when they went forward with the Bad Idea, Shrub and his crew went about it in the most careless, pig-headed, arrogant, sure-to-fail way possible.
In fact, it stretches credulity to even imagine that the Bad Idea was expected to succeed. They couldn't have failed more spectacularly if they tried. So, I really suspect that chaos was an expected and welcome development, and then the Iraqis themselves broke the script by refusing to behave as the liberated and grateful beneficiaries of the Neo-Cons' generosity.
Instead of using the Iraqis' military cooperation (and there were people willing to be bought) to keep order, the Neo-Cons wanted a clean slate in order to put their Knavish Stooges in charge of all that oil.
This Iraq Occupation has absolutely nothing to do with the War on Terrah that the Repugs keep blathering about. We have a big mess to clean up, and I don't know if the Democrats are going to be able to salvage the situation, but I know the Republicans can't succeed. The Repugs must go.
Did you know that in 1815 USA started a war with Algiers-and that sea battle was the only one that USA ever won in the M.E. Over some USA trading ship sinking. How many times does the USA use this black flag operation excuse to invade ? Tomkin.Cuba.911 ect.
By the way--what is USA's business in this so faraway area ?
I saw the movie in NyC last week. I simply fail to see how anyone can be so incompetent as to make all the so many blunders in Iraq.
I seriously doubt that people in this administration are THAT stupid. I am sure at least one of them knows of the Marshall Plan after World War II. Not only that, they had advisers who would keep them abreast with planning.
I am starting to believe that they intended things this way.
If the war ends, fewer billions are made by the arms industry and the financial industry lending those billions at interest. Further, the regional instability sought is not achieved. This is a very sad time for all involved, but sadder still that the "democracy" system which is the current justification for the war has utterly failed in the country that started it.
Impeachment is a good and neccessary start, but a warcrimes tribunal must also be convened, if we do not want to always speak of freedom in the past tense.
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