1. NigelM.

   10

   Frightening, fascinating and vital, this should be seen by as many people as possible, whatever your political persuasion. Lessons have to be learnt from the mess that Iraq has become and this film asks all the right questions, even if it doesn't have all the answers. The Bush administration have fueled terrorism beyond anything Bin Laden could ever have done, through ineptitude, carelessness and pure ignorance.… Expand

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2. hollyc

   10

   As others have said, this is the best documentary dealing with the Iraq War--and I would argue the best doc of 2007. Not since "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" have I seen such a well done, level headed piece of documentary film making. Bravo to Charles Ferguson. What a stellar debut film.… Expand

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3. Josh

   2

   The movie is at times incoherent; it sneers at U.S. forces for doing nothing to stop looting in 2003, but later in the film, it makes the troops look like storm troopers for arresting suspects. Throughout, the audience gets only one side of an argument, plus scary music, so it can congratulate itself for being so much smarter than these guys. But there was no simple answer to anything in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld invaded with a smallish force because he wanted to tread lightly in a region where Americans are viewed with suspicion, not because he was a fool. De-Baathification of Iraq is presented as a disaster, and perhaps it was. But that wasn't obvious at the time. Picture the alternative: a rebuilt military packed with our sworn enemies and headlines reading "Saddam's forces still in power in U.S.-backed government." There is nothing cinematic about the project - these suits and analysts belong on TV - but it is a useful summary of what happened in the early days after the taking of Baghdad. The star emerging from the mess is Col. Paul Hughes, director of strategic policy for the occupation in 2003, who comes across as an invaluable adviser whose warnings went ignored. Somebody give him another job in Iraq. Hughes' boss back in D.C., Walter Slocombe, is hung by his own words and seems incompetent at best. Some details caught on the fly are vivid and shocking: A professor says he came across a freshly minted Georgetown graduate with no experience in anything who was put in charge of all Baghdad traffic. Most of the film, though, rehashes information you already knew and tries to inflate trivia into scandal. The American head of the provisional government, Paul Bremer, didn't speak Arabic? So what? Douglas MacArthur didn't speak Japanese. OK, President Bush had no combat experience. Neither did FDR.… Expand

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