Former Administration Officials Speak Out on Iraq at Sundance Panel — Jan 23rd 2007

By Karina Longworth

It's rare for a film festival to spotlight major political figures. But earlier today, former Bush Administration officials appeared on a panel alongside filmmakers Charles Ferguson and Alex Gibney to discuss their Sundance Documentary Competition entry, No End in Sight. First-time director Ferguson described the picture, which premiered here in Park City on Monday to standing ovations from both festival attendees and press, as pointedly non-partisan. Instead he aimed at creating a cohesive historical record of the mistakes made in the first year after the Iraq invasion. "I don't want it to be seen as having an ideological bent," Ferguson explained. He added: "I wanted it to be a simple accounting of what occurred. Because what happened was so stunning.... I thought that we would all be best served by showing what happened."

The panel, moderated by journalist David D'Arcy, brought together five interview subjects from No End, including U.S. Marine Lieutenant Seth Moulton; former U.S. Ambassador Barbara Bodine, who was kidnapped in Kuwait during the first Iraq war and was placed in charge of a Baghdad for a short time after the 2003 invasion; and Omar Fekeiki, the former office manager of the Washington Post Baghdad bureau. Two former Administration officials participated via satellite: Lawrence Wilkerson (who was Colin Powell's chief of staff) and Jay Garner (who was head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq).

D'Arcy led the panel through a discussion of some of the major points made by the film, including the Administration's refusal to stop the looting that erupted immediately after the fall of Baghdad. "I was in the push to Baghdad," recalled Lieutenant Moulton. "There's this mistaken perception that the Marines in Baghdad couldn't have done something to stop the looting. In truth, we were told not to. We certainly had enough troops to stop the looting right there in Baghdad."

"While the American officials in Baghdad were trying to figure out what to do," said Fekeiki, "we were deceived by what they were telling the press, that everything was planned perfectly. People were building their hopes high, because they all thought we would be liberated, and that we would start rebuilding the country in six to eight months."
D'Arcy noted that President Bush's approval ratings are currently at 33 percent. No president has earned such rotten ratings just prior to his State of the Union Address since Nixon hit his nadir in 1974 (and he had both Watergate and Vietnam to contend with). The moderator asked Wilkerson, a Vietnam veteran, if he could see parallels between that war and the current situation in Iraq. "Yes, I do see some parallels," Wilkerson replied. "I do think there's a backdrop that's quite different .... But there are some similarities that are disturbing right now. I think we have bad leadership on both sides of the house, so to speak. We have bad military leadership, and bad civilian leadership, which have led to some of the problems."

Wilkerson went on to express dismay at how little resistance the Congress has offered the Bush Administration. He suggested that Congressional leaders should have brought in every major general to testify as to the facts on the ground. "Instead, the Republicans sought to more or less cover for the president and vice president, and in my mind, that's unconscionable. I'm a Republican and that makes me mad. My party is not the party that I became a member of many years ago. The Congress as a whole should have been exercising its oversight."

MORE TO COME: For more details on today's panel, keep your eyes on this story--we should have the full video posted here later today. For more on No End In Sight, keep an eye on our Sundance tag. We'll have a feature on the movie, including an interview with filmmakers Charles Ferguson and Alex Gibney, posted there soon.

UPDATE: Parts One, Two and Three of the 35-minute press conference video are embedded below.

Tags: bush, bush administration, BushAdministration, documentary, iraq,, movies, no end in sight, NoEndInSight, politics, sundance, war

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