No End in Sight

Charles Ferguson's documentary No End in Sight combines archival news footage with knowledgeable talking-head interviews to offer a clear and damning presentation of the American misadventure in Iraq. After briefly detailing the Bush administration's determination to invade Iraq despite the lack of any demonstrable connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11, the film looks at the aftermath of the initial military operations, when security and rebuilding efforts were totally bungled. Interviews with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Jay Garner (a retired army general first appointed to oversee the reconstruction), Ambassador Barbara Bodine (put in charge of Baghdad in the days following the invasion), and Col. Paul Hughes (on-site director of occupation policy), as well as journalists and Iraqi citizens, reveal an astonishing lack of planning coupled with consistently poor decisions (including personnel appointments) emanating from Washington. Although the refusal of most administration officials to be interviewed is unfortunate, No End in Sight, narrated by Campbell Scott, effectively argues that the post-“mission accomplished” failure has both exacerbated religious divisions and directly fed the continuing spiral of violence in what may well turn out to be the biggest foreign policy blunder in American history. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)