Iraq documentary No End in Sight will make you weary and worried

No End in Sight is the documentary tale of how the United States government systematically dismantled (i.e., irretrievably fucked) the nation of Iraq. It is not a story about why they did it (though all signs point to “on purpose”). It is also not about the Iraqi people, or the American people, or the troops on either side.

The bulk of the film rests on interviews with players both major (retired general Jay Garner, who led the immediate postwar reconstruction effort in Iraq; former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage) and minor (journalists, analysts, diplomats). Interspersed is news footage and plenty of press-conference comedy from Secretary of Smirk Donald Rumsfeld (“I don’t do quagmires”). From the initial invasion, to the months of looting (State Department official Barbara Bodine describes “people coming in with industrial cranes” and physically tearing the infrastructure apart), to the disastrous disbanding of the Iraqi military, de-Baathification, and the current[ly failing] troop surge, the film is a step-by-step guide to building an insurgency from the ground up.

For the most part, No End in Sight avoids the kind of loaded, bumper-sticker editorializing that sucks the marrow out of fruitful discourse (though the point that Truman took two years to plan the invasion of Germany, while Bush rushed into Iraq in 60 days, seems a tad oversimplified). The film works best when it leaves the conclusions up to its interview subjects (such as Colonel Paul Hughes, his mind almost comically blown by willful incompetence), who are more than happy to damn their former bosses all to hell.

I came home from this movie, weary and worried, and watched Bill O’Reilly devote half an hour of outrage to whether or not you should teach a baby to say “bitch” (he’s against it). The future is fucked.

NO END IN SIGHT DIR. CHARLES FERGUSON | NOT RATED | AT SELECT THEATERS IN LA AND OC