The Iraqi War No End in Sight

1. The Iraqi WarNo End in Sight Stephen Samela

2. The Documentary • No End in Sight alternates between U.S. policy decisions and Iraqi consequences, systematically dissecting the Bush Administration’s decisions.The consequences of those decisions now include 4,362 American deaths and 31557 wounded, Iraq on the brink of civil war,94,049-102,624 Iraqi civilian deaths, the strengthening of Iran, the weakening of the U.S. military, and economic costs of over $900 billion.

3. What Surprised Me the Most? • What really surprised me was how EVERYTHING seemed to go wrong during the invasion of Iraq • Somehow, every decision that was made was the wrong one. They resulted in the destruction of Baghdad, the rise of the insurgency, and the ransacking of important national and historical buildings • Every action that was taken seemed only to make things worse. With each passing month, we plunged Iraq deeper into destruction and despair, lost soldiers to bombings and attacks by insurgents, and wasted billions of U.S. dollars • Every government official we put in charge of planning and supervising the occupation of Iraq seemed to be the wrong person for the job, lacking the required experience to make informed decisions and simply making things worse year after year. Whenever someone who actually knew what they were doing tried to offer advice, they were either ignored or dismissed and replaced with someone incompetent

4. What Angered Me? • The American government allowed the National Museum of Iraq to be looted during the chaos in Baghdad in April 2003 • They had already inspected the museum and promised Iraqi officials that they would be sure to protect it along with other important buildings such as the national library • When the riot started, U.S. forces were nowhere to be found • They had been assigned to guard oil refineries instead, even though there were plenty of troops to spare to guard the museum

5. State of Iraq’s Government • As of February 10, 2006 the elected Iraq National Assembly has been in control • The Assembly consists of a Speaker, a President, a Prime Minister, and a Cabinet • Except for the Prime Minister, who has more power than the President, this is obviously very similar to the structure of our own government. The ministers are just like the members of the U.S. Cabinet

6. De Ba’athification • About 30,000 members of the Ba’ath political part, of which Saddam was a member, were dismissed from their jobs • Some of them weren’t even working for the government, but lost their jobs anyway • Half of them were able to return to their posts after they won their appeals • Eventually, Bremer decided that his original plan for de Ba’athification was much to harsh and unjust • About 9,000 more Ba’athist government officials were returned to their positions in the Iraqi government, supposedly to support unity and also because many of them had never committed any crimes and their expertise was required to run the government smoothly

7. The Iraqi Military • In 2003 the Iraqi military was disbanded after the U.S. seized control of the country • Eventually, the U.S. developed a program for training and equipping a new, organized Iraqi military • Despite budget problems, the New Iraqi Military, as it is called, is a big improvement over its previous incarnation • In its end state, it will be a 300,000-person force

8. Fin