Fascinating series on Iraq from PBS

[In-A-Gadda-Levitre]

you have to check out this Frontline series on Iraq

 

There's lots of in-depth interviews from senior CIA, military, Dept of State, and well respected journalists and authors on the web page.

 

The mistakes and personalities outlined in this documentary really puts things in perspective. Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and Bremer are the bad guys, with Tenet taking the fall for the boss.

 

Bremer did some incredibly stupid things, like the De-Bathification law, which basically removed all the people and functions of the Iraqi government, and the disbanding of the Iraqi army, which put 200K armed and trained angry men without jobs into the streets.

 

Of course this is biased against the Bush administration. If you watched some of the other Frontline documentaries like these, the series creators repeated quite a bit of the expert opinions and commentary.

[Steely Dan]

The links to watch on the Frontline sight don't work.

[Pete]

Frontline is a kick ass show and I saw that episode. I have been plugging The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It is a tremendous book that really will explain what douche bags Rumsfeld and his crew are. Bremer is a megalomanic, incompetent POS. Rumsfeld is a bigger megalomaniac POS who wanted to run the military and he privatized just about everything (all in the name of his ego and Milton Friedman economic theories). Hence the !@#$ ups of FEMA at New Orleans and the the outsourcing to Haliburton and Blackwater, etc. Rumsfeld pissed off just about everyone- the CIA (Rumsfeld compared them to the old Russian enemy on 9/10/01), Condoleeza Rice (he left her in the dark), Tommy Franks (he quit out of frustration), Jay Garner (he quit because Rumsfeld), etc. I will add to this thread later.

 

Here is a short film that explains the Shock Doctrine-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieyjfZDUIc

 

 

!@#$ you Rumsfeld and Bremer!

 

PBS and NPR rock!

[In-A-Gadda-Levitre]

The links to watch on the Frontline sight don't work.

hmm, just checked them, they worked for me. You can get to the Bush's War page, but the video links don't work?

[Pete]

The links to watch on the Frontline sight don't work.

it works now- I just got on

[boomerjamhead]

Frontline is a kick ass show and I saw that episode. I have been plugging The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It is a tremendous book that really will explain what douche bags Rumsfeld and his crew are. Bremer is a megalomanic, incompetent POS. Rumsfeld is a bigger megalomaniac POS who wanted to run the military and he privatized just about everything (all in the name of his ego and Milton Friedman economic theories). Hence the !@#$ ups of FEMA at New Orleans and the the outsourcing to Haliburton and Blackwater, etc. Rumsfeld pissed off just about everyone- the CIA (Rumsfeld compared them to the old Russian enemy on 9/10/01), Condoleeza Rice (he left her in the dark), Tommy Franks (he quit out of frustration), Jay Garner (he quit because Rumsfeld), etc. I will add to this thread later.

 

Here is a short film that explains the Shock Doctrine-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieyjfZDUIc

 

 

!@#$ you Rumsfeld and Bremer!

 

PBS and NPR rock!

 

I wish Gates would get more credit than what he has received. Bush's successor would be foolish not to keep him on IMO - at least for the first term.

[Pete]

I wish Gates would get more credit than what he has received. Bush's successor would be foolish not to keep him on IMO - at least for the first term.

He most definitely is better then Rumsfeld, although I do not know too much about him. He handled the Kurd/Turkey situation well. You know a lot more about him then me. What do you like about him?

[gmac17]

PBS and NPR rock!

 

now go read the book by Feith and the truth is probably in the middle.

[In-A-Gadda-Levitre]

now go read the book by Feith and the truth is probably in the middle.

While you can fault the CIA for missing things leading up to 9/11, most of what they said or argued against later turned out to be true, like doubting the existence of the WMDs. Whereas most of what Feith's organization was responsible for were failures (i.e. singular, unreliable sources like the yellowcake story or Atta supposedly meeting the Iraq intelligence officer in Prague). Also from what I've read, most of his organization were political analysts, not trained in intelligence, and that hardly any of the principal players took him seriously, basically that he was full of poopy.

 

sooo, not much credibility in Mr. Feith's version.

[DC Tom]

While you can fault the CIA for missing things leading up to 9/11, most of what they said or argued against later turned out to be true, like doubting the existence of the WMDs. Whereas most of what Feith's organization was responsible for were failures (i.e. singular, unreliable sources like the yellowcake story or Atta supposedly meeting the Iraq intelligence officer in Prague). Also from what I've read, most of his organization were political analysts, not trained in intelligence, and that hardly any of the principal players took him seriously, basically that he was full of poopy.

 

sooo, not much credibility in Mr. Feith's version.

 

Not much credibility in any of it. Too many people with too many axes to grind are publishing their books right now (like that jackass from the Times, whose name escapes me at the moment, whose entire thesis of his writing seems to be "See, I was right!"). It'll be a good 20 years at least before we start to get any writing that resembles the truth about Iraq.

[In-A-Gadda-Levitre]

Not much credibility in any of it. Too many people with too many axes to grind are publishing their books right now (like that jackass from the Times, whose name escapes me at the moment, whose entire thesis of his writing seems to be "See, I was right!"). It'll be a good 20 years at least before we start to get any writing that resembles the truth about Iraq.

I hear what you're saying, but most of what I've read and seen is very consistent. On one side you have the Dept of State, the CIA, some former Justice Dept (i.e. Jack Goldsmith), and most of the journalists and authors. On the other you have the neocons like Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. The latter wanted a regime change and railroaded it through, pushing aside moderates and 'voices of reason'.

 

For what it's worth, Frontline does a pretty good job bringing in experts that were on the ground and in the meetings. It's not like State, the CIA and journalists or authors are saying different things happened.

 

There's a few people like Feith and Yoo are trying to justify their actions and contest the moderates/journalists/authors views, but they're the minority and they end up looking pretty stupid in the process.