Even Republicans will like the brutal straight talk and factual background presented in a politically non-biased film.
The film presents face to face video interviews with the people who were on the ground, insiders to the story, as the farce unfolded.
Information about the farce in Iraq overloads our senses, our newspaper, and our TV screens. We find it nearly impossible to screen through the huge amount of lies, misinformation, and rumor.
Avoid the rumors and see the movie when it comes out on DVD October 30, 2007.
Before then, here's a partial transcript from PBS.
BRANCACCIO: But, also, nobody, America, certainly not Iraq wanted to have happen what happened soon after the invasion, which was, because of a—apparently a power vacuum, the destructive looting that sweeps the country. You also had not enough—US troops—available to—for instance, safeguard ammunition dumps.
HUGHES: People were getting in all over the place, stealing things, because we didn't have enough soldiers there for it.
BRANCACCIO: This affects this whole thing with improvised exploded devices that—would crop up later.
HUGHES: Absolutely. Absolutely. The IEDs began with—artillery shells that were being wired together—singularly—being detonated. And they have now progressed, as you would expect an opponent in war to do.
BRANCACCIO: So, soon after this—watershed moment for Iraq, when Saddam was toppled, the military is defeated, is this other unplanned watershed moment, the looting and the destruction, and the film makes the argument that this is—this is seed of doubt that starts to creep into the Iraqi psyche. The idea that, "Why aren't the Americans protecting us?"
RUMSFELD: The images you are seeing on TV you are seeing over and over and over. And it's the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase
BODINE: I think that was probably the day we lost the Iraqis
RUMSFELD: And you think, my goodness, were there that many vases? Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?
BRANCACCIO: And then, as things evolve in Baghdad, a series of key decisions that it is argued in the film, have radically altered prospects for Iraq in their wake. Number one, big decision, stop the early formation of an Iraqi government. Was that—did you worry about that decision?
HUGHES: Absolutely, because, at that particular point in time, we had raised the bar of expectation for the Iraqi people. They were thinking, "Hey, we're gonna be able to participate in a government." This is something they had never been able to do. They didn't know exactly how to do it, but they were anticipating a new day. And then, suddenly, it stops. And—they're questioning the Americans, like, "Don't you really know what you're doing here?"
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