Uncovered - The War on Iraq

It's common knowledge nowadays that the case for war in Iraq had no merit - but in 2004, when this documentary was released - we were still buried under mountains of propaganda. This program shows us that the Bush administration disregarded the advice of most of its own intelligence people (and even Bush Sr.), in order to proceed full steam ahead into an Iraq war with no exit plan.This documentary has a large number of talking heads who held positions of authority in the U.S. intelligence community. Time and time again, they clearly state that they were trying their best to dissuade the government from entering Iraq. If you still believe that WMDs exist(ed) in Iraq, then this documentary will thoroughly demolish that belief. Saddam was a threat to his own people, but the country was militarily weak and not a significant threat to other countries (especially not the US!). We see that many Americans were thoughtful, intelligent, cautious, and were totally against the invasion. Most important - as one person says near the end - the Iraq invasion took a nearly-failed state and made it in a failed state. Failed states are breeding grounds for terrorists. So, in fact, the invasion has made the world a more dangerous place.

The main film is from a narrow US perspective and the subsequent PR campaign; shame there was no review of how much Achmad Chalabi contributed to the US intelligence picture at the time or any mention of the input of the shoddy British Intelligence based off a MSc paper (glad to know our tax pounds aren't just being used to bail out greedy bankers but also to fund 007's sex orgies). Instead we get news snippets of Bush and his cronies PR attempts and angry former intelligence analysts saying 'Rumsfeld just wanted to invade Iraq no matter what' and 'I told you so'.

Nor did it mention the fact that Iraq did have a fledgling bio-weapons program; as the US had sold equipment to Iraq up to 1992, that's why people were scared in GW1 where it resulted in 90% WMD's being destroyed in 1999 by the UN. Instead we get false claims that Iraq never had WMD's - could have checked wikipedia at least on that one. At least they should read the 2005 Duelfer CIA report which confirmed the existence of small labs up to 2003 but nothing to warrant clear and present danger or presence of substantial weapon stocks.

In conclusion a simplistic film with cherry picked interviews with limited background designed to say the war was wrong, the leaders knew it and lied to us.

Personally I found the 'extra' 57 minute film concerning the 2000 presidential election was far more interesting and concerning the 'integrity' of American Democracy. You may of heard of dodgy dealings in Florida - this goes into far more detail and those dirty GOP tricks used. If you want to rig an election you can learn a lot from Bush Jr.