Michael Kirk’s documentary Bush’s War gives great insight into the events leading up to and through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It touches on how the war in Iraq was needlessly pushed through by underlying agendas. The documentary basically lays out the fact that the reason for any failures on our part is due to a dick swinging contest by upper cabinet members of the executive branch.

When the war in Afghanistan started, we did things right by allowing our intelligence agencies to set the stage for us. Basically we ran in there and paid the local warlords to give up Al Qaeda and keep the peace. We barely had to lift a finger. However when push came to shove the CIA eventually needed some military backing which the DoD was extremely hesitant to give initially and when they did come, they came in far less amount than what was needed. But still, thanks to the actions of the CIA, Afghanistan started off as an extreme success. ::In comes big dick swinger Rumsfeld:: Rumsfeld whines that he needs control over the CIA to make all this work. His extremely close relationship with Dick Cheney naturally pressures the President to give it to him. Now the DoD is controlling intelligence.

What does this lead to? Well after all the deceit and lies convinced us to go to Iraq, what do we do? An excellent job with our military might. We rush into the scene and topple Saddam’s regime within days, an extremely well executed operation by our military. However, when Saddam’s army, the 150,000-ish strong troop which used to keep the peace and order in the country, was gone there was no one to control the actions of the people. I mean our 7000 troop strike force was not there with the intentions of keeping a martial law… or any law for that matter. Really that type of organization is something that should have been handled by our intelligence agencies… which are now under control of DoD. Meaning Rumsfeld, in his big swinging dick attitude, fucked it all up by not using the CIA properly due to some grudges.

One thing that is interesting about this documentary is that it actually, for the most part, displays President Bush in a good light. It shows that the good intentions of an honest man were distorted by the corrupt opportunists around him. He had to completely turn against and distance himself from Rumsfeld and Cheney to do what is right. In the end you actually almost feel sorry for him. Unfortunately the story does not delve into the hidden agenda behind the invasion of Iraq, other than a comment about using it as the starting point for a “change the middle east to democracy” ideology found in the old style political thinking of Cheney and Rumsfeld.

But seriously… damn good documentary. Anyone living in America during this era should watch this. If it were up to me, school children would be watching it twice a week.

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