Just saw the new documentary "No End in Sight," a heart-breaking account of all the things the US did wrong in Iraq after the invasion, as described by all the major players but the Bush gang, who, um, declined to be interviewed. (You can get a pretty good sense of the film from the preview on the official site.) It's very depressing. It shows how the war was lost as specialist after specialist was ignored or removed by Bush cronies with no relevant experience. There were people in place who had learned the lessons of Yugoslavia and even Gulf War 1, but they were sidelined and undermined.
It's sobering to be reminded how things fell apart, from unchecked looting through sidelining of Iraqi leaders through oppressive interrogations in search of nonexistent WMDs through the disbanding of the military and on and on. But it's heart-breaking to realize that, illegal invasion notwithstanding, things need not have fallen apart this way.
Much that's in the film is familiar, but the way it draws things together made me realize something today for the first time: for the rest of my life I'll be meeting Iraqis whose lives were disrupted if not upended by the incompetence of an illegitimate American President and his cronies. And the rest of us, who let them get away with it.
I doubt we have the political will to undo even what damage can still be undone in Iraq, though we must. Where's the candidate for President in 2008 who knows we need to make amends to Iraq, and not just to get out? And why haven't we impeached the Prez and VP yet?!
