If you’re not sure where you stand on the situation that we’ve gotten ourselves into in Iraq, then I hight recommend that you watch [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158648608X/bujinkanmartia0b/]No End in Sight[/url]. It’s a well made documentary that does a pretty good job of summarizing the first 18 months of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. What is made startlingly clear is both the lack of planning by the Bush White House before the event and the almost ridiculous series mis-steps that were made “after” the war.

If you don’t want to rent or buy [b]No End in Sight[/b], you can watch the slightly more laid back [url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/]Frontline episode[/url] that mirrors the film. Once you’re done with that, check out [url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame/]Frontline’s Endgame[/url] for more recent developments in the occupation.

Although I was initially against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I think I was hopeful that this move might actually lead to some changes in that part of the world. Almost five years into it, I don’t see a way to win the war or defeat the enemy by lengthening our stay in Iraq. To say that the situation is hopeless and that we should pull the troops out with no regard to the civillian population of that country is inviting what I am guessing will be a “humanitarian disaster” not to mention a likely destabilization of the already tenuous situation with Iran. The irony that is not lost on anyone is that we were probably safer and the Iraqi people certainly better off, with Saddam in power. I’m not sure what the REAL motivation behind the war was (GW getting back at Saddam for the assassination attempt on his daddy? Cheney and his crew’s chance to make untolled billions of dollars in contracts to “rebuild” Iraq?), but the three documentaries mentioned above sure do point out the bungling of the current administration.

I was surprised to see that [url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/]Frontline[/url] has a good part of it’s catalog of reports available for viewing online. In a television landscape that is sorely lacking in good, factual reporting Frontline still seems to be a bastion of real journalism.