In May 2003, President George W Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. Four years later, after over 3,000 American deaths and over 20,000 American wounded, Iraq has disintegrated into insurgency, civil war and chaos - with Iraqi civilian deaths estimated by some to be as high as 600,000.
Based on over 200 hours of footage, the shocking story of post-invasion Iraq is told via interviews with high-ranking Bush administration officials. They identify three key errors of US policy, made very early in the planning of the occupation, which would prove to be fatal.
1. The first was to stop the formation of an interim Iraqi government.
2. The second was 'de-Ba'athification', making an estimated 50,000 members of the Ba'ath party - which Saddam had used to run the country - permanently unemployed. These people were technocrats, intelligentsia, even the school librarian, who had joined the party simply to survive under Saddam's regime. This move crippled government, the education system and the economy.
3. The third mistake was to disband the Iraqi military. Overnight, half a million armed men were rendered unemployed - and therefore infuriated. These men, instead of helping prevent an insurgency, created one.
No End in Sight does not pick on soft targets to make its point - it goes straight to the top, accusing President Bush directly of fundamental acts of negligence - such as ignoring detailed intelligence and choosing not to read the first report on the state of the insurgency.
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