SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

rightwingisevil the worst American administration ever since the nation became an independent regime after 1776. that stupid bush could win his 2nd term also proved that American voter were so stupid and blind and also certified that the republican party has been, is and will be the most vicious, heartless group of people who shame the so-called democracy to the extreme. the invasion of Iraq is like the 21st century modern-day crusade executed by the phony Christians. that demon-like cheney and that rumsfield, rice and their peers were among the worst and the baddest human beings ever existed in human history. all the Americans should feel ashamed to be Americans and at the same time also exposed that the Christians are just a bunch of thugs, liars, killers, butchers and murderers. American soldiers also proved to be nothing but the blind killing machine of the American government.

phd_travel This documentary focuses on the post invasion mistakes made by the administration and problems of occupation and factors leading up to the insurgency.It does a great job of putting together what has happened since the invasion of Iraq. I think it would have been hard to get a clear picture from newspapers and TV news. This is not a Michael Moore style documentary - it's less in your face but no less effective. There are interviews with many relevant people from the administration and Iraqis as well.A couple of small faults. A lot of information is given very fast. It's a bit hard to remember who is who. They should have left the names and designations of the persons a bit longer on the screen when the person is talking. A bit more background on the people interviewed might have helped the viewer understand what they are trying to put forth.A very well done documentary that should be seen by all. Makes one want to find out more about the situation right now in Iraq and what has happened to the people who screwed up the occupation. Also it makes one wonder what will happen to Egypt and Tunisia etc when power is being transferred to the new government.

djray65 This is an amazing conformation of the Bush administrations utter failure in the handling of the Iraq war. A girl scoot troop could have made better and more informed decisions. Perhaps even a troop of monkeys would have done a better job then Bush's henchmen?The errors in judgment and lack of military experience within the administration are both appalling and telling of the Bush white house. Every military expert was systematically ignored or sidelined. It's as if the Bush administration's primary and sole interest or concern was the protection and acquisition of Iraq's oil provisions.This film is a testament to the complete and absolute failure of the Bush presidency.

Robert J. Maxwell One of the interviewees muses that rebuilding Iraq would be difficult, that there were 500 ways we could go wrong and only 2 or 3 in which we could go right. "We didn't realize," she concludes, "that we were going to go through all 500." Is this a Bush-bashing propaganda piece? Not really. Bush rarely comes up, partly because he was out of the loop on most of the important decisions, such as disbanding the Iraqi army, de-Ba'athifying the nation, and so forth. He'd evidently turned all of that over to the people who really get clobbered here, namely Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bremer, and especially Rumsfeld.The film lays out for us things that generally most of us already know about. It's not about combat, except insofar as combat appears as a consequence of mismanagement at higher levels. It doesn't jerk easy tears. A few soldiers tell us what it's like to be blown up. A few Iraqis describe kidnappings of their friends, neighbors, and children. But nobody breaks into sobs and shows us his wounds, and the anecdotes aren't detailed. The justification for the war is barely touched on, and Constitutional issues aren't raised. There's hardly any musical score and it's not melodramatic. The appeal is to logic and perception, not emotion, although nobody would call the film dull in any way.The interviewees we meet are sober and convincing, even as they confess their own misjudgments. Rumsfeld and the rest refused to be interviewed for obvious reasons. Their decision is understandable but it leaves the field open for critics of the war. The interviewer is not especially hostile, even to subjects who believe the reconstruction was handled well, like Walter Slocumbe. But the critics are not rabid left-wingers either, just military people, diplomats, and cogs in the wheel of nation rebuilding.What a tragic waste this has been. Never mind the physical and mental suffering of everyone involved -- except, evidently, those who are ultimately responsible for the tragedy. As of the time this film was released in 2007, the eventual cost of the war in Iraq was estimated by two highly respected economists (one a Nobelist) at $1.86 trillion. Think of what we could do with that amount domestically. And, ironically, who has benefited the most from this ill-conceived and hasty invasion? Our adversary for the past 30 years, Iran. We eliminated their greatest enemy.The film prompts considerations that go beyond Iraq. Maybe some nations simply don't have the infrastructure for the kind of Jeffersonian democracy that we enjoy. Maybe at some level, communities are best suited for a kind of benign totalitarianism. In city neighborhoods dominated by the Mafia, corruption is endemic but there are only occasional outbursts of violence. And the neighborhood runs smoothly when everyone knows what's expected of him. It's unjust but within its limitations it works. During the chaos of 2007, one of the Iraqis interviewed on the street shouts, "If this is democracy, we don't want it. Give us a strong man and bring us order." Something like that.