My Soapbox*

If you don't want to hear my somewhat depressing rantings, just skip this entry.

In the spirit of England, I'll climb up on my soapbox. I can't help myself. Granted I'm not at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park actually standing on a box, like so many people do on a daily basis, but I dragged one out into the living room. Everyone has a bias. Mine is that I was never excited about the invasion of Afghanistan, was adamantly against the invasion of Iraq as just plain stupid, and have hated the Bush Administration from day 1.

I'm not alone here in England. I'm sure it doesn't surprise any of you after seeing Britain's oust of Tony Blair, Bush and the war are not popular. While we've been here, we've seen fictional documentary-like movies on the subject. One was filmed as if President Bush had been assassinated and projected the aftermath... would America be able to survive? Come on—bet they didn't show that one in the states :) (Just in case you're wondering, it happens outside of a hotel in Chicago, the Sheraton maybe?) The movie reminded me of the interviews and speculations you saw post-JFK. Another movie was about Tony Blair and his supposed guilty conscience during/after his time in office. Didn't watch that one, can't comment.

Tonight was different. I just watched a real documentary that made me cry. Actually cry. Why? Because I'm American. Because of the bull-headed, know-it-alls that we think we are. Or that the Bush Administration thinks they are. I doubt they have shown this in the States, but maybe I should try to be optimistic for a change and hope they have.

It's called True Stories: No End in Sight. I know, even the title's uplifting. It was a very rational, logical examination of Iraq's "reconstruction." I expected it to be a British perspective and was curious. It seems to have been created by Americans. For 2 hours, they interviewed a ton of military, state department, OCHA, CPA, UN, Middle East experts, on-the-ground reporters, and local people who were involved. Most of the higher level people were associated with the government at one time or another, until their opinions and expertise no longer agreed with the administration and were dismissed one way or another. Of course the big players declined interviews. The information and perspectives they provided filled in the gaps in the news reporting I've seen and actually made the chaos now happening in Iraq seem a logical conclusion to a totally *$%#ed-up process.

I think the three things that really hit home for me were...

1) In WWII, the US was planning the occupation of Germany for 2 YEARS. For Iraq, they planned for 60 DAYS and in that time had to start at 0, meaning they didn't even have computers, desks, or proper staff on day 1.

2) When Bremer took over the Green Zone, most of the team was replaced with graduates who were put in charge of major components of reconstruction. Yes, idiots in their early 20s looking for adventure, whose parents had political connections or donated money to the proper campaigns. In one interview, a Professor happened to be in the building and was shocked to run into one of his students that just graduated. "She couldn't believe her luck, she was put in charge of traffic planning for Baghdad." He asked if she'd ever done that before because it was so important and drastically needed. Of course she said no. Only our best! Now I'm all for giving young people opportunities to learn and grow, but give me a break. When I was that age, I was freaked out to have been put in charge of designing signs for a retail store. Relatively meaningless. And I wasn't really in charge.

3) The border forts, or whatever they were called, that were built by the military were built in something like 5 weeks and cost something like $200,000. The ones built by private contractors took something like a year and cost $1.2 million.

Now, like I said this was a very logical examination of the reconstruction, analyzing the major pitfalls and turning points. This wasn't Fahrenheit 9/11. It wasn't outwardly inflammatory. I think it was all the more disturbing because of that, because it feels closer to fact. Hindsight's 20/20, but there's no excuse here. We just should have known better. There is absolutely no excuse to ignore the vast majority of your experts, to not read any of the reports that have been prepared, to disregard what people on the ground are saying. They ended it with a marine who has fought there and says "Don't tell me that's the best America can do. That just makes me angry." Me too. I just had to go to another country to learn why.

* As a disclaimer, these are my opinions, not necessarily Pat's. He hates when I'm tempted to use this forum as a soapbox, but he's asleep. For all of you that disagree with me, and I'm sure there are a few, it doesn't mean we can't still be friends :)