About Baghdad
                    
Director: Sinan Antoon
Year: 2005
Rating: 7.0
In July 2003 Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi who had left his country in 1991, returned to Iraq four months after the American invasion and simply asked people their opinions of all that had gone on. Though we are far removed from those days, it is fascinating to listen to what people thought at the time. Perhaps it was too close to the invasion to get much perspective, but people most certainly had strong opinions and were not reluctant to share them. Something of course they would have been jailed for under Saddam the Monster. Still, this was a horrible unjustifiable war that was perpetuated by lies from the Bush administration. And those stupid enough to believe them. Some that I worked with as well and we would engage in angry arguments about this. It seemed obvious that there was no way Iraq under severe sanctions and no allies could be building a nuclear program. Some had cherry picked evidence from a few people who hated Saddam - and Bush and Cheney used it to invade and take out Saddam. Of course, no proof of mass weapons of war was found. That was never their intention.

Now, I get into these on-line arguments with those advocating for Putin and the invasion of Ukraine and eventually they throw in Iraq for which I have no real answer. An estimated 150 - 200,000 civilians died in Iraq. Massive infrastructural damage to electric and water systems, buildings bombed that had no strategic value. My only response is that one immoral invasion does not make what Russia is doing right. It is just as immoral.  That generally confuses them - that an American is agreeing with them about Iraq..

Listening to the people is interesting though. Many are grateful that America got rid of Saddam. People talk about being tortured and imprisoned under his regime. It is hard to hear. What a beast of a man. Thankfully, he and his equally dreadful sons are dead. Sometimes karma and the US army does the right thing. But the vast majority of people already want us out. Let the Iraqi people run Iraq. They saw us as occupiers after only a few months. Incompetent ones. Bush made a mess of everything. Got rid of the police so that there was no security. Promised but did not deliver at this point on getting the electric grid back up and water supplies running. In his defense, he was just as incompetent in handling Katrina. These opinions are from your basic man on the street. Thankful that Saddam is gone but getting very impatient with us. Many ask why we had to destroy so much. Why did we have to kill so many. Of course, it should be mentioned that when Obama pulled all the troops out, ISIS began their war and they asked for us to come back.

Not that Americans care what the man on the street in Baghdad has to say. We never hold ourselves responsible. Never apologize. Never examine what we did. No national reconciliation with our wrongs. With the dead. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq. We just leave eventually and never look back. I believe America has done much good in the world but when you really fuck up, you need to face it. We never do. Now Republicans don't even want to teach it in schools. America is always right in their history. One would like to think we have learned lessons from these experiences and won't be invading any country again. But do we ever really learn lessons. Fucking Trump is back like a sexual disease that can't be cured. That says all you need to know about the American people right now.