Summary
This documentary shows what the Bush Administration did to affect the Iraqi war and occupation and the errors that were made which may have lead Iraq into more problems. The ORHA(Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance) who were doing well, but then were replaced by the CPA(Coalition Provincial Authority) and they failed to meet the needs, requirements/suggestions that people had. Errors such as disbanding the Iraq military which created the insurgency, people looting, and not sending enough troops to help protect some major site like the Iraq National Museum and ammunition storage sites. In this documentary it was said that the decisions that were made by the Administration, were made very quick and easily which may have created most of the problems. There were a lot of the people who were sent to Iraq to help out with the situation but did not speak Arabic and did not have a lot of knowledge on Iraq. Some military men also used force to control Iraqi people and arrested innocent men who were mostly one of many people from the disbanded Iraqi military. These issues also may have caused the civil war between the Sunni and Shi'a factions. But the situation deteriorated and The Bush Administration couldn't control Iraq and bring them to peace.This is the link to the full documentary: http://q.gs/4G23M
Review
The documentary takes place in Iraq and all the events that took place were after the 9/11 attack, until 2007, the year the documentary was released. The director of the documentary used a lot of interviews of people who were involved in the events that took place. There were a few who did not want to be interviewed. The reason may be that they did not want to talk about the mistakes or errors they have made in their decisions. All the people who were interviewed were very nice and gave their honest opinions and answered to the questions.
Character Analysis
These are short character analysis of some of the people who were in this documentary.
General Jay Garner - Was director/administrator of ORHA(Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance). He was very nice and helpful. He still tried to get messages across and do anything to help, even when he was no longer director after ORHA was replaced with CPA(Coalition Provincial Authority) and L. Paul Bremer was in charge.
Ambassador Barbara Bodine - She was in charge of the Baghdad embassy. She is a cheerful person and she also thought that there were a lot of big mistakes made that could have been averted. She did quit her job shortly after CPA replaced ORHA.
Richard Lee Armitage - He is a deputy secretary of the State Department. He didn't think what was going on was right. He left his position when Colin Powell left his.
Omar Fekeiki - He was a Office Manager in Baghdad Bureau for Washington Post. Expressed a lot of his opinions. Wanted to stay anonymous so his face and body were covered in darkness.
Col. Paul Hughes - He was the Director of Strategic Policy for the US Occupation. He was saying how Paul Bremer had made a lot of mistakes. He also said that some of the actions taken were wrong.
Seth Moulton - He was part of the US Marines who went into Iraq. He talked about how some these men treated the Iraqi people and how some disrespected them. But he did say that the people he worked with people who treated them nicely when he was in Iraq with the Marines.
L. Paul Bremer - He was in charge of the CPA and made a lot of decisions for Iraq, some were big mistakes. He was one of the people who did not want to be interviewed. The documentary stated three terrible mistakes that really affected Iraq.
Constructed Elements/Director's Choice
These are short character analysis of some of the people who were in this documentary.
General Jay Garner - Was director/administrator of ORHA(Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance). He was very nice and helpful. He still tried to get messages across and do anything to help, even when he was no longer director after ORHA was replaced with CPA(Coalition Provincial Authority) and L. Paul Bremer was in charge.
Ambassador Barbara Bodine - She was in charge of the Baghdad embassy. She is a cheerful person and she also thought that there were a lot of big mistakes made that could have been averted. She did quit her job shortly after CPA replaced ORHA.
Richard Lee Armitage - He is a deputy secretary of the State Department. He didn't think what was going on was right. He left his position when Colin Powell left his.
Omar Fekeiki - He was a Office Manager in Baghdad Bureau for Washington Post. Expressed a lot of his opinions. Wanted to stay anonymous so his face and body were covered in darkness.Col. Paul Hughes - He was the Director of Strategic Policy for the US Occupation. He was saying how Paul Bremer had made a lot of mistakes. He also said that some of the actions taken were wrong.
Seth Moulton - He was part of the US Marines who went into Iraq. He talked about how some these men treated the Iraqi people and how some disrespected them. But he did say that the people he worked with people who treated them nicely when he was in Iraq with the Marines.
L. Paul Bremer - He was in charge of the CPA and made a lot of decisions for Iraq, some were big mistakes. He was one of the people who did not want to be interviewed. The documentary stated three terrible mistakes that really affected Iraq.
Constructed Elements/Director's Choice
There were different scenes and lighting used in this film. The music was usually a sad music. Each person being interviewed had a different background. Only one person wanted to stay anonymous so his face was not shown but it was covered in darkness. The lighting was all natural so it tells you that the mood is serious. The backgrounds during a few interviews were black and others were normal that the person being interviewed fits in. I've noticed that there was one person who had a black or unclear background during their interview and they may have made a mistake or a bad decision.
All the camera angles in the film were straight except for some video clips of Iraq were sometimes shaky because of blasts for example. The camera were never panning, they would go to the next scene right away. Many times they used close-ups during the interviews to usually show seriousness or something that was emotional. The video below is showing seriousness of protecting ammunition storage and how easy it was for people to get them.
Narrative/Dramatic Elements
The conflict that was shown in this documentary was human vs human. This documentary shows a lot of the problems that Iraq was facing. Mood was already set because there were many violent scenes and how people in power were not doing anything. The US was supposed to calm the situation down in Iraq but they weren't able to. This all started because of the 9/11 attack. The director used many things to keep us interested in this documentary, such as violence scenes with disordered items and showing tanks and other military vehicles. We also had clips of each of the person in the interviews being in Iraq. We also was heard their opinions.
The director tried to show us that the problems could have been averted. But it seems as though the US created more problems while interfering and trying to calm down the situation. Showing the civil war between Sunni and Shi'a, and the problems with Iraq and the US was used to inform people what was going on. The use of interviews told us that many people in power were not very active and others with less power tried to help as much as they can. But the less active people were the decision makers and this was shown by Paul Bremer who was the leader of CPA(Coalition Provision Authority). There was a scene showing the military men spending and using some of their money to help out, even though there weren't getting enough funds being sent in.
This documentary doesn't use much narration to tell what's going on or what happened. Instead, they used the interviews to tell the events. They also used words, sentence and stats in a black screen without narration or anyone talking. This video below is an example of just showing the text and black background on screen. The music is still a sad or worrisome music.
Lies were another thing that was clearly shown. One example is how the US said they'd use and spend 18 billion dollars but only 1 billion was actually spent to help with the reconstruction. Another lie was telling that the military would protect some of the historical and important sites and that they'd come, but they never did. That was another way director showed the conflict and what may have caused it.
There were many video clips of gun fights tanks and transportation vehicles that the military men used. There was also video footage of military men using force to control Iraqi people. The clip below shows how military men treated some Iraqi people and how harsh they were, even to innocent men and women. Basically anyone who was with the Iraqi military before were suspected of insurgency and were arrested.
This was to show the kinds of problems that were present in Iraq with military men. The director was trying to show us that maybe these acts of military men could have enraged the Iraqi people more and also adding to the current problem. This was also a cutaway shot where the person being interviewed talks and the scene cuts out to something else.
Point of View/Theme/Bias
This documentary goes from objective point of view to first person because the people who were interviewed told what they did and what they were doing. The information was all given by them and the interviewers asked the questions. Usually information of the people who did not want to be interviewed came from others. The film may have been a bit biased because we only heard from the people who were against the quick and hasty decisions and the people in power who did not provide satisfaction. It may have been more different if we had more people talking about both sides of this. But this documentary was mainly to show Iraq and their downfall after the US went in and also the wrongs that were made. That was also the theme.
Personal Response, Thoughts and Other Discussions
Point of View/Theme/Bias
This documentary goes from objective point of view to first person because the people who were interviewed told what they did and what they were doing. The information was all given by them and the interviewers asked the questions. Usually information of the people who did not want to be interviewed came from others. The film may have been a bit biased because we only heard from the people who were against the quick and hasty decisions and the people in power who did not provide satisfaction. It may have been more different if we had more people talking about both sides of this. But this documentary was mainly to show Iraq and their downfall after the US went in and also the wrongs that were made. That was also the theme.
Personal Response, Thoughts and Other Discussions
I learned that documentaries will sound and look uninteresting until you actually watch it. Another thing I learned about documentaries was that they can get very long, but this one is about an hour and a half long. But if it was longer I would probably watch a bit each day.
Works Cited
"No End in Sight." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912593/>.
"Starpulse.com." Starpulse.com. Starpulse, Aug. 2007. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/No_End_in_Sight/Summary/>.
Leigh, David. "General Sacked by Bush Says He Wanted Early Elections." General Sacked by Bush Says He Wanted Early Elections. Common Dreams, 18 Mar. 2004. Web. 15 May 2013.
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<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0318-01.htm>.
MIT Center. Cambridge MA, n.d. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://web.mit.edu/cis/images/ambassador_barbara_bodine.jpg>.
"The Honorable Richard L. Armitageprinter-friendly Version." Armitage International, L.C.N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://www.armitageinternational.com/team/member.html>.
"Paul Hughes." United States Institute of Peace. US, n.d. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://www.usip.org/experts/paul-hughes>.
The Governance Board. Vetlands, n.d. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://www.vetlands.org/governance-board>.
"Protester Hurls Shoes at Paul Bremer, Former US Envoy to Iraq." Protester Hurls Shoes at Paul Bremer, Former US Envoy to Iraq. NBC News, 9 Feb. 2013. Web. 15 May 2013.
<http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/09/16914436-protester-hurls-shoes-at-paul-bremer-former-us-envoy-to-iraq?lite>.
