Uncovered: The War on Iraq - who watches the watchers

The Scotsman is carrying a decent analysis of who is in charge in Baghdad: Nobody. The ongoing violence there has undermined the credibility of the power handoff. Christopher Albritton, the proprietor of Back To Iraq, is experiencing the effects of the expanding chaos first hand. He has another rather harrowing post up.

Once you have taken in the full measure of current events in Iraq, please see a movie called Uncovered: The War On Iraq to understand how we got there. I particularly advise any fence sitters to go with an open mind. For me, this movie is the anti-Fahrenheit 9.11.

I enjoyed Moore's film, to be sure. I enjoyed it for what it was - a documentary-style, visual essay. When Moore allowed the people and events to supplant his urge to showboat - the soldiers here and at home, the mother who lost her son - the movie worked. But I didn't think Moore advanced his case by narrating the thoughts in Bush's head while he read my pet goat, for example, or by backing up his conspiracy theories with pictures of a parade of neocons, in and out of office, shaking hands with Saudies. Propaganda is propaganda. I distrust it no matter for what cause it is produced - even mine.

Uncovered: The War on Iraq is a totally different animal. It has no narration, no sensationalism. It is a sober, serious critique of the substance and style of the Bush Administration's case for going to war. This movie lets 28 undisputed military and intelligence insiders talk to the camera about how intelligence was gathered, shaped and sold in order to take the United States to war. These are people like Stansfield Turner, former head of the CIA; Peter Zimmerman, former chief scientist of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst with three decades of experience; Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq; David Kay, who was appointed by Bush after Ritter;Joseph Wilson, David Kay, John Dean and many, many others.

The full spectrum of political sensibilities is well represented. I guess you could subtitle this movie, the march of the bureaucrats because so many serious professionals who have toiled in obscurity for decades line up to doggedly, quietly insist that the Bush administration's manipulation of fact, media, and power is profoundly corrupt. Anybody who loves the essence of freedom embodied in our constitution will squirm throughout the show. Again, undecided voters, fence-sitters, I urge you, watch this movie.