"No End in Sight" and "Bush's War"

Our close friends in California strongly recommended watching the DVD, “No End in Sight”, a retelling of the incompetence and the distortions of the Bush administration in the planning of the Iraq invasion and the restoration of a society. Since then, I also watched “Bush’s War”, a documentary by Front Line. While the latter is far superior in terms of content and portrayal, they both are 100% consistent with the multiple books I have read about the ordeal. The difference is seeing in great detail the horrendous consequences of our actions.

My comments about these documentaries are placed within the context of my prior blog of 19 March, “Controversial Pastor of Obama”. In that commentary, I shared my understanding of how someone could be as angry regarding US policies as some of the words used by Pastor Wright.

While my wife discourages me from either reading any more books or watching any more documentaries that reference Bush and his policies, I do and, with every reiteration of what I already know and with every new information about this president, I admit that my anger grows more and more. What has happened to Iraq is beyond words! We have destroyed a nation (one could question whether it ever was a “nation”), inflamed ethnic tensions to the point of internal war, threatens the relative stability of Mideast and, finally, reward Iran by dismantling their Sunni enemies and establishing a Shiite stronghold within the Arab world.

My anger is great! I am totally embarrassed by the level of incompetency displayed by our government, Bush’s disregard of thoughtful input from high officials, and the subsequent loss of our status as a moral influence in international affairs.

In spite of my anger and revulsion about what we did, I personally do not know what should be done. While I support the intention to reduce our troops as quickly as possible, I am not sure that this will work. And, I recognize that we were the culprits in destroying the "nation". I have no confidence that leaving Iraq will work. I can well understand how the aftermath of our leaving will result in such great turmoil in the Mideast that WWII, Vietnam, Korea will all pale in comparison with the conflagration that could well occur. At the same time, I know that our presence is itself a stimulus for attacks. We have to leave even if we have to return! What a horrendous situation!

As an addendum, “No End in Sight” includes comments by Seth Moulton, an officer in the US Marines. Of interest, he comes from Marblehead, MA. His parents are both educators and a product of the Vietnam Era. They hate war. Their son, Seth, went to Harvard and, as he approached graduation, he decided to join the US Marines as an officer, to the horror of his parents. At this point in time, he is on third rotation (his enlistment ended and he was accepted into the Kennedy School of Government, but was personally enticed by Gen. Petraus to return to southern Iraq so that his expertise could help). His parents have come to terms with their son’s decision, but admittedly, we watch the papers to be sure that he is still alive.