If you are like I was, you want our troops out of Iraq, pronto. You believe the foreign policy disaster that is the War on Terror should end, but maybe if someone asked you to explain your stance in the context of the war's history, you'd stutter a bit. Don't worry--it's not your fault. The media has conditioned our collective memory to be more like a blackboard than a stone tablet. Events are recorded, only to be erased and replaced with more shocking, unexpected events. Frustrating, yes. That's where Christopher Ferguson's documentary, No End In Sight, comes in handy.
In this , the definitive Iraq cinematic offering, Ferguson presents the events of the war, from the very beginning, spliced with video (much of it fairly rare footage) of both politicians and soldiers, interviews, and hard facts. And this is no amateur's attempt at chronology; pretty much the only voices missing from the documentary are--surprise--those of Bush, Cheney, and Rice. The linear construct of the film, designed by this capable MIT grad, is simple yet incredibly effective. Say goodbye to one of the administration's most powerful PR tools, Operation Iraqi Confusion.
This is a great piece for the whole family--it doesn't lean too far left for Dad the Republican, and it forms just enough judgment to please an anti-war viewer. I fall in the latter category, and I was interested to find thatNo End In Sight had the effect of pulling me away from the "get US out now at all costs" constituency. The sight of the Iraq people, running wild through streets that we weren't prepared enough to secure, brings the situation into a focused reality that is much harder to turn one's back on than an abstract notion. I don't want to leave until we return a semblance of security to the Iraqis. But, as this documentary makes painfully clear, this won't happen anytime before January 2009.
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