No End In Sight (2007)

The documentary opens with Donald Rumsfeld talking about an unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century. Followed by the credits, which were edited in with stock footage of Iraq and its combat.

After the credits the viewer is introduced to scenes of a downtown market in the heart of Iraq. There are banners hanging from walls with anti-American propaganda written on them; there are subtitles for those who cannot read the banners. There are shots of men armed with assault rifles walking the street, apparently keeping the peace. The market is the scene of a protest against the “Wahabi unbelievers”, American forces, and anyone who helps them.

“On May 1st, 2003, President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq and said ‘in the battle of Iraq, the United States and our Allies have prevailed.’”

After this quote there is a cut to scenes of car bombs, suicide bombers, and people mourning the loss of loved one.

The first section covered by the documentary is entitled, “History.” This section covers the ideas and political reasoning that the Bush Whitehouse gave to put troops in Iraq. Laced with interviews from former members of the Whitehouse, this section guides the viewer to see that some people gave good advice about actions that were to be taken in Iraq; these were politely discarded.

The next section is, “War”, which opens up to President Bush talking about the campaign in Iraq. This is quickly followed by clips of the “Shock and Awe” campaign as well as awe inspiring footage of all parts of the military at work. There are a few interviews at the beginning of this section that focus on the soldiers themselves, and the interviewer asks why these soldiers joined the armed forces. They give a variety of answers, from “I thought it was the right thing to do” to “I thought it would be a job that wasn’t boring.” The interviews with soldiers are quickly followed by interviews with more high ranking officials (retired) explaining about how the military requested more troops and how they were so harshly denied. Topics range from post war Iraqi looting to incompetence of high ranking members of the Whitehouse.

After that section is a part called “The Void”. This section received its name from the void encountered after Baghdad was captured. There was a massive influx in violence and the United States military was doing nothing to stop it. A more noticeable void was that left by Saddam as he fled power. In his absence, radical religion became a way of life, if not to just keep the people occupied. Leaders like Moqtada al-Sadr quickly became warlords and created their own militias.

This section is topped off with two conflicting interviews about the dissolution of the Iraqi military. This conversation of interviews goes on for over 15 minutes and was put together to directly conflict with each other.

The rest of the documentary is done in the same fashion; interviews which are set up to capture differing sides of the war in Iraq. B-roll is used heavily, but in such a way that the viewer will not get bored or used to seeing the footage.

This documentary is a very hard-hitting presentation of what the war in Iraq looked like from the governmental level as well as on a civilian level. If anyone is wondering about how the United States got involved in the current conflict, this documentary will answer most (if not all) of your questions.

- Tanner Johnson