No end in sight

I just watched the documentary No End in Sight about the US invasion and post reconstruction attempts of Iraq. It was made in 2007 and now I get to see this movie 3 years later and have to say it lives up to it's name. The Senate just approved $60 billion for continued funding of Iraq and more deployment troops to Afghanistan, as well as rejected a measure to create a time table for Afghanistan.

The movie gives a good overview of what led to the invasion and what happened during occupation. The war was disasterous in many respects including: the top executives had no basis of realism and refused to acknowledge outside input or dissent, there was a few months of planning before the invasion, the people sent to Baghdad in ORHA got replaced quickly by CPA in three months, very few officials involved spoke Arabic or had any prior experience in the Middle East, government officials who dissented got fired or found it hard to speak up persistently, there were not enough troops sent, US officials in Iraq secluded themselves in the Green Zone, military contractors were very overpriced and took the roles of reconstruction when the Iraqis stakeholders should have.

According to the documentary, Head of CPA, L. Paul Bremer made three huge mistakes: 1) martial law was not enforced, so there was no security at all from anywhere because there was no police enforcement 2) deBa'athification -- anybody (including officials or schoolteachers who could have helped to tell US officials what they wanted for a new Iraq) affiliated with the Ba'ath party was rendered employed forever, 3) Iraqi military forces were disbanded and also made unemployed. Anarchy prevailed, and these unemployed people, estimates as high as half of the population, often in the goal of being able to support their families and wanting incompetent and destructive US forces in their country gone, became insurgent.

Newspapers don't report as much on the Iraqi war now. The country seems in complete shambles, with little to no infrastructure. The problem hasn't been resolved at all. The death toll and injury rate is too high for the outcome: destruction of a country. And this isn't just limited to Iraq either. Palestine , Pakistan, Afghanistan are just a few other examples.

donde hay guerra no hay paz ni seguridad ni vida sustainable. demasiada violencia y quimica. la gente esta sin las cosas mas basicas, como agua y comida y casa, y en muchos casos, sin sus amados porque se murieron. y si la guerra termina, la cualidad de vida esta tan peor, porque no hay recursos o tierra para construir y usar para vivir. para obtener la recuperacion de una sociedad es muy dificil cuando ya esta destruido el pais.