Movie critic A.O. Scott liked "No End in Sight," an anti-Iraq War documentary, so much that he recommended it to the president and vice president.
The headline is as slanted as Scott's impressed review: "In the Beginning: [1]Focusing on the Iraq War Enablers [1]."
"The film's title evokes the apparent interminability of this war more than four years after President Bush declared that 'major combat operations' were over, and it twice shows Mr. Rumsfeld telling journalists, 'I don't do quagmires.' But Mr. Ferguson's focus turns out to be fairly narrow. He does not dwell on the period between Sept. 11, 2001, and the beginning of the invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein, nor does he spend a lot of time chronicling the violence that has so far taken the lives of more than 3,000 American soldiers and marines and tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of Iraqis. Instead, most of the movie deals with a period of a few months in the spring and summer of 2003, when a series of decisions were made that did much to determine the terrible course of subsequent events."
In an online video accompanying the review (unusual in itself), Scott recommended the film to President Bush. and Vice President Cheney.
"In some ways 'No End in Sight' asks a very simple question, one that is already beginning to be asked in political circles, in journalism, on talk shows, the question Who lost Iraq? Who's responsible for the fact that this war has gone on for four years, more than four years, with so much violence? And the movie supplies very specific answers. It names names. It says Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, L. Paul Bremer, Dick Cheney, George Bush. Perhaps not surprisingly, all of these people declined Charles Ferguson's offer to be interviewed for this movie. One can only hope that one of these days they'll get around to watching it."
Update: The MRC's Tim Graham pointed me to this posting [2]at the Center for American Progress (a liberal activist group founded by Clintonite John Podesta), revealing thatCAP sponsored a screening of the film last month.That leaves little doubt about the politcized nature of the film's launch and press strategy.