NYT review of tonight's PBS Frontline -- "The Lost Year in Iraq"

[Bozita]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/arts/television/17fron.html?_r=1&ref=television&oref=slogin



October 17, 2006

TV Review | 'The Lost Year in Iraq'

After the Fall of a Dictator, the Rise of Confusion
By ANITA GATES

Dissolving the Iraqi Army in 2003 might not have been such a great idea.

“Now you have a couple hundred thousand people who are armed — because they took their weapons home with them — who know how to use the weapons, who have no future, who have a reason to be angry at you,” Col. Thomas X. Hammes of the United States Marine Corps says in tonight’s PBS “Frontline” documentary, “The Lost Year in Iraq.”

Very few punches are pulled during this disturbing, eye-opening hour, written, produced and directed by Michael Kirk. And clearly Mr. Kirk and Jim Gilmore, who is credited with the reporting for the film, found no shortage of highly placed people who were willing, even eager, to talk about the disaster that many perceive American-occupied Iraq to have become since the spring of 2003, when President Bush declared victory there.

The film begins with the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein, a scene shown over and over on American television, and the portentous observation that “the Iraqis couldn’t pull it down themselves” because it was so heavy. So the American military helped.

“The Lost Year in Iraq” doesn’t bother going into a discussion about whether the war was a good idea to begin with. It moves right to Baghdad’s fall in April 2003 and the looting that began hours later and soon “verged on chaos,” as the narrator says.

more...

[Kber]

1. Thanks for the info

I'll be sure to set my Tivo.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Frontline is always good.

Kick

[question everything]

3. Kick

[Bozita]

4. kick

[Bozita]

5. kick

[question everything]

6. This was unbelievable. I was watching it shaking my head

in disbelief.

I wonder whether Rumsfeld can be tried for a dereliction of duty. Or something. How can such a mighty nation like ours embark on such a mission and bungle it so badly?

[Jacobin]

11. Oh, we've done it before ...Viet Nam

[necso]

7. Incompetence this gross, negligent,

amounts to de facto treason.

And this program (sort of an executive overview of policies/personalities/happenings) shows just the tip of the iceberg, not really examining the unnecessary viciousness, the corruption, the preplanned looting, etc.

...

"And oh, oh yes I would, if I only could."

[Make7]

8. That Frontline episode is now available for viewing online...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/view/

.... for anyone who missed it.

- Make7

[Bozita]

9. recommended viewing, imho

[Make7]

12. Absolutely. There are many other excellent episodes on their site.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/view/

Frontline does some of the best TV reporting on the Iraq War and also the "War on Terror". (Well, I guess it isn't all that hard to be the best when compared to what else is on television.)

- Make7

[spanone]

10. If Congress were as vigilant as Frontline Chimpy boy

would be in chains.

[warrens]

13. I saw previews

This one's a winner.

BTW, I saw Jan Schakowsky last week, helping out Tammy Duckworth. She said, does everyone know Keith Olbermann? I was shocked, she just discovered him and thinks he's awesome. But man, these are our COOL representatives. What do the really nerdy ones do for news, read cave paintings?