Just A Comma

If you have the stomach for four and a half hours of documentary television, I would highly recommend you watch Frontline’s Bush’s War, which was recently released for free online [torrent] and in DVD form. Compiled from more than 40 Frontline reports on Iraq, and supplemented with fresh reporting and new interviews, Bush’s War constructs a thorough analysis of how the U.S. ended up at war in Iraq. It wouldn’t hurt to make this film required viewing for every American citizen.

One of the things I noticed about the documentary is that, although it’s called Bush’s War, Bush himself barely plays a part in it. The film is instead chock full of plotlines involving analysts, staffers, and cabinet members, but the President is nearly absent, save to sign the papers and give the speeches. This is emblematic of something, I’m sure. I almost felt sympathetic toward him, like he’s less evil than I previously thought and is just ignorant instead.

Interestingly, there is a large amount of time devoted to the personality conflicts between major officials in the administration. Cheney and Rumsfeld are (perhaps correctly) depicted as a duo of hard-charging, Type A jackasses who will not hesitate to steamroll over anyone who disagrees with their policies. On the other hand, Colin Powell and Ms. Rice come across as relatively gentle, level-headed officials whose wiser strategies are largely disregarded by those with more political power.

Even if you don’t know anything about U.S. foreign policy with regards to Iraq, Bush’s War will catch you up in a very short amount of time; I highly suggest you watch it. Appropriately, once you get into it, it’s hard to get out.