By David Miller
From the horror of 9/11 to the invasion of Iraq; the truth about WMD to the rise of an insurgency; the scandal of Abu Ghraib to the strategy of the surge -- for seven years, FRONTLINE has revealed the defining stories of the war on terror in meticulous detail, and the political dramas that played out at the highest levels of power and influence.
Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the full saga unfolds in the two-part FRONTLINE special Bush's War. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk draws on one of the richest archives in broadcast journalism -- more than 40 FRONTLINE reports on Iraq and the war on terror. Combined with fresh reporting and new interviews, Bush's War will be the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in the nation's history.
Not unlike many Americans I have watched the war in Iraq unfold, and unfold, and unfold. It was on the anniversary of the fifth year of unfolding that I drove to Washington D.C. and back, a visit to see my daughter, her husband, and their one-year old son. We had never had a car with a cassette player, or a working CD player, but this trip was different – a working CD player and books on tape from the Loveland Library.
I wanted something to listen to while making the long trip through the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland where usually the radio has nothing to offer except provocative right wing radio, evangelical preaching from the mountains, or twangy country music. Not that there is anything wrong with the radio choices, however entertaining they can be – it is just not my cup of tea, to get engrossed and then have the station fade in and out as you traverse one mountain range after another.
I have read very little fiction ever in my life, so at the library I looked for nonfiction, finding, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold, The decline and fall of truth" by Frank Rich. I listened to the first three CD's on the trip east, and four on the way home, having more time as I entered the Pennsylvania Turnpike going the wrong direction and when discovering the mistake was caught in the no-man's land of no exits. In the end, it was a two hour mistake – oops... paying extra toll and $3.35 for gas. Ouch!
Rich's book is a chronology, from 9/11 to Katrina, documenting a sad story of how the war was sold to America, including our politicians. From the start, when the government lies were being believed by most, and everything was going peachy for Bush/Cheney, but when the “selling” wasn't going so well, and they had to resort to paying nationally recognized columnists under the table to write the company line which led to even more “decline and fall of truth.”
Every half hour or so listening to the book, I kept telling myself that each lie told to sell the war were in actuality uncovered fairly rapidly, yet Bush and Cheney got reelected. “How could that have happened?” As I kept asking myself, Rich goes into that also, as he tells how Bush/Cheney were packaged during the re-election period, and how John Kerry was unpackaged; by himself in many ways, but also by the swiftboaters.
Arriving home from what is a long drive even without the stupid detour, I settled on the couch and channel surfed, finding Part 1 of the Frontline documentary, “Bush's War.”
Frontline's tale hit on many facts detailed in Rich's book, but it's mostly a “fly-on-the-wall” look at the White House, Pentagon, and CIA – the personality conflicts, turf wars, etc. Most intriguing is the absolute bungling a war we entered without a plan to provide security for Iraqi citizens. Bush sent men without any experience to Iraq, who immediately dismantled the existing government and military, driving hundreds of thousands of now angry, hopeless, and armed Iraqis into the shadows and underground.
The visuals of the Frontline story are very valuable, in that they bring faces to their story, faces we can put with the names we have grown to know. Frontline transformed almost all their gathered photographs of individuals into sepia monotone images that were carefully cropped to remove distracting background elements, and in doing so made faces and facial expressions distinct. While hearing of conflicts between Condi and Donald, you often see her in the background, and as the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
It is also in seeing the closely cropped monotone images of unfamiliar faces that made this a well-told story and for me, easily understandable and unforgettable for the first time. I followed the story into Part 2 on Tuesday night.
Rich's book on CD will be back at the Loveland Library as soon as I finish the last disk (I do not know whether of nor they have the book itself) and you can watch “Bush's War” on-line at your pleasure by following this link. (PBS makes viewing easy with chapter markers.). You will also find a video timeline, more than 400 interviews, battlefield stories, slideshows/videos, and reporters dispatches.
Buy "The Greatest Story Ever Sold, The decline and fall of truth" by Frank Rich here.
Search for the book at the public library here.
For it or against it, or somewhere in between - these are two good sources for understanding it.
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