As more begrudging admirers will likely acknowledge, Ferguson is no Michael Moore. His background is as a scholar and a Brookings wonk, and No End in Sight — his first film, amazingly — is less a work of investigation (or activism) than of history.
Bracketed by a pair of press-conference quotes from Donald Rumsfeld — the first smugly declaring his pride in the "first war of the 21st century," the second defensively claiming, "I don't do quagmires" — the doc scarcely acknowledges the fraudulent justification and fundamental immorality of the Iraq invasion. Focusing on the war itself, from Shock and Awe and Mission Accomplished to Rummy's honorable discharge and beyond, Ferguson is chiefly interested in compiling a filmed dossier of incompetence — not so much to argue that the war could've been won and won early, but to suggest that the magnitude of arrogant irresponsibility will carry aftershocks as far into the future as the mind can imagine. No end, indeed. The title seems to refer not to the interminable war, but to the irreversible stain on America's reputation. Ferguson's ultimate image of urban Iraq in flames, swarming with well-armed insurgents, is a picture of hell, and not one that's only burning Over There.
Ferguson's approach is both relentless and, with the help of Campbell Scott's flat narration, chillingly calm and composed. Titles of the doc's handful of sections include "The Void," "Things Fall Apart" and "Chaos" — and, yes, those are distinct historical periods. In the film's straightforward narrative, nonexistent or, at best, hasty planning before and during the start of the war leads to Iraqi lawlessness and looting. Iraqi culture — indeed, the world's record of early civilization — is essentially decimated. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz insist on maintaining troop levels at two or three times less than those recommended by Army generals. Mass civil disturbance ensues. American soldiers apprehend Iraqi "suspects" and deliver many to Abu Ghraib, where prisoners are tortured and otherwise abused. The Shiite militia rises to fill the power void. Paul Bremer is appointed head of the Coalition Provisional Authority and, consulting no one with military experience, aids the Iraqi insurgency by halting the formation of a sovereign government and instituting a de-Ba'athification policy that disenfranchises hordes of people. Then Bremer summarily disbands the Iraqi military, apparently under the assumption that a half-million unemployed and armed men will be content to watch the war from the sidelines.
Ferguson has assembled a wealth of on-the-ground footage from a variety of sources, using it mainly to annotate his interview material, although near the end of the film, he includes a horrifying home video of private military contractors randomly picking off Iraqi civilian motorists with machine-gun fire, Elvis's jaunty "Mystery Train" booming from the Americans' car radio. Throughout the film are images of burning cars, stacks of torn bodies, bombed-out homes, Iraqis weeping into open coffins. Is the movie's reporting biased? Not if you consider that anyone who'd testify to the "good intentions" or overall success of the campaign — Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Rumsfeld — refused to comment. The evidence speaks for itself, and No End in Sight — addressed to those who'll be swayed against the war by ineptitude more than immorality — is the rare American documentary that doesn't appear to preach to the converted, or at least not only to the converted. For those of us who've opposed the war for years, the movie is at once intensely frightening and, it must be said, disturbingly reassuring. Everything you wanted to suspect about this administration's warmongers but were afraid to fully believe? Here it is.
