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« Roush Dispatch
Preview: Frontline Takes on Bush's War
Consider this a DVR/TiVo/VCR/whatever alert for those distracted by tonight’s Britney sitcom appearance, the return of CSI: Miami or the latest round of Dancing With the Stars. For the next two nights, PBS’s greatest asset, the trenchant and enterprising news magazine Frontline, devotes 4 ½ hours to telling the stories behind the current Iraq conflict in sobering, gripping detail.
Bush’s War is lucid, engrossing, infuriating, timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the conflict and arriving on the heels of another grim day of terrible violence in the region (with sad irony, on Easter Sunday)—also the day when the U.S. death toll reached 4,000. This is the sort of program network-news divisions ought to be devoting their resources to. Which is why we should be so thankful to Frontline for being there all along the way.
Building a narrative from an archive of more than 40 Frontline reports (with updated interviews) dating back to the 9/11 attacks through the planning, selling and execution of this war, Bush’s War might more accurately be called “All the President’s Men—and Condi Rice.” Though there is war footage here, this is really the story of the political infighting that got us into this situation and why the end is not in sight. You could almost lose sight of the war against terrorists in all the scorched-earth tactics in the bureaucratic battles between agencies (CIA vs. FBI vs. Department of Defense vs. State Department) and the power-play turf wars and blame games between the (mostly) men in charge, notably Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld against Colin Powell.
It’s a scandal wrapped in a tragedy, with the first night (the build-up to war) a study in arrogance and the second night (shock and awe followed by insurgency) a chronicle of incompetence.
What’s really sad here is that this won’t be Frontline’s last word on the subject.
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Mar 24, 2008 9:20 AM
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When is this airing.
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Mar 24, 2008 12:30 PM
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It airs tonight (3/24) 9pm Eastern
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Mar 24, 2008 4:16 PM
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My problem with a special like this (and this is based solely on the review because I haven't seen it) is that they spend all of there time beating up on President Bush.
There have been many blunders which can be blamed on Bush and the men you listed, but the way the war has been fought can also be blamed on Congress (Republicans and Democrats). All I'd like from a special on the war in Iraq is less attempt at division.
Bush and Cheney are not evil. Congress is not evil. We keep allowing ourselves to be divided. Politicians (on both sides) continue to use the war as a political tool while heroes continue to give there lives for their country.
I'm just personally tired of both of these political parties and their games, and it seems to be all anyone is interested in anymore.
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Mar 24, 2008 10:46 PM
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I believe the PBS special will not be two nights of Bush bashing.
PBS did a similar special on Desert Storm that was really an eye opener. I was particularly interested because we had contractors trapped there until that conflict was over, and military personnel who came back suffering from mysterious diseases that forced them out on disability.
Colin Powell and General Swartzkoff among others were each interviewed and each were extremely honest about what they hated doing during that conflict as ordered by the President.
For instance, Swartzkoff said they had decimated the enemy's army and another two weeks the army would have been totally wiped out. But he was forced to pull back and pull out.
One of the other things they showed was how the President in interviews in the Middle East and at home clearly abandoned the people who survived saying the rebels were not his issue. And those same insurgents are the reason we have 4,000 dead Americans and ten times that (or more) civilian dead in the current conflict.
So give the PBS special a chance. They usually do a good job with interviews and getting people to honestly state their experiences and they balance that with good research.
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Mar 24, 2008 11:05 PM
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It isn't so much that I think that there will be "Bush bashing" it just seems like all the stuff we see on Iraq on TV seems to have an agenda. Whether it be Fox News and its cheerleading for the administration, or the other networks constantly blaming the administration for all the problems of the world.
It isn't anything new, but it is really starting to bother me. While these specials (once again I'm talking about on both sides of these issues) may be completely factual, they take the facts that they want you to see and present only those that fit their point.
Maybe I'm just using this area to vent because I really became fed up this past weekend. I had the opportunity to stand and talk to a member of our armed forces home on leave for a week or two from Iraq. I went up to thank him for his service, but then we were just standing around waiting for something, so we actually had quite a bit of time to talk.
He was very candid and commented that he was frustrated turning on the TV when he got home. The coverage of the war frustrated him because he didn't see any. He agreed with the media that the war was being mismanaged before, but that things had improved significantly and the coverage disappeared. I was already frustrated, but listening to his frustration made my blood boil.
I guess while we are still fighting the war, and people are still giving their lives I would rather not spend my time looking back at what went wrong in the past. I'd rather focus on things that are going wrong right now (the things we can fix), but also on the things that are going right. There will be plenty of time to talk about the mistakes and missteps when our men and women are out of harm's way.
I've probably done a terrible job of expressing my opinion, but I get very emotional about it, so I apologize.
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Mar 25, 2008 1:18 AM
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This was truly fascinating! A real eye-opener/popper!
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Mar 25, 2008 11:19 AM
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