the smedley log - suburban scrawl

No End in Sight: A word to the wise…

My seventh grade history teacher was Mr. Baltich. His motto was “A word to the wise is sufficient.” He often used it to conclude tales from historic episodes in which things could have gone much more smoothly had one or more of the parties learned from existing wisdom. This existing wisdom might have come from a scorned adviser or from the simple observation of past events.

Mr. Baltich also used this motto as part of his warning to a classroom full of parochial school students (as in “Heed this understated verbal warning, or else…”). At the naive age of 12, most of us didn’t grasp the seriousness of any warning that didn’t include wild gestures or raised voices, so we’d often get to find out what fate befell those to whom words were insufficient. Eventually we started to wise up.

Mr. B’s trademark saying is based on the notion – and I wasn’t sure of its accuracy until the past few years – that it takes true wisdom to heed the advice of those who’ve experienced more than you. I already knew there were countless examples of young, cocky types who, for whatever reason, feel the need to remake all of the mistakes their elders warn them about. I’ve always chalked it up to a sense of hubris that seems almost inherent to youth. My recent viewing of the documentary No End in Sight helped illustrate to me how pervasive this foolish attribute is in biologically mature men, like those who engineered the invasion of Iraq.

No End in Sight carries the tagline “The American Occupation of Iraq – The Inside Story From the Ultimate Insiders.” Which is why it’s the most impressive documentary I’ve seen about this current Iraq war.

It’s easy for the most blindly loyal W supporters to dismiss liberal archetypes like Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan and Noam Chomsky. This film, however, features the likes of former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, Ambassador Barbara Bodine, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (former chief of staff to Colin Powell), and General Jay Garner. Yes, you could call them all America-hating zealots with an anti-war agenda who know nothing of war or occupation, but doing so would require you to surrender your last remaining thread of credibility on foreign and military policy (and possibly your claim on sanity, as well).

It’s an entirely disturbing film for the depth of knowledge and experience displayed by its interview subjects. Even the lesser known subjects, including U.S. combat troops and various journalists, offer glimpses into a reality completely at odds with the versions sold for too long by people like the President, his Defense Secretary and Mr. Bremer. It struck me that just about every person interviewed in this film had more depth of knowledge on the state of affairs in Iraq than the those who actually engineered the situation.

No End in Sight is deeply disturbing – especially footage of the flip evasions and one-liners Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld offered the news media on the rare occasions someone dared ask a serious question. The only prospect more disturbing is that there may actually be people who can watch this movie and come away believing this administration ever had a clue how to conduct this war or its aftermath.

One optimistic note is that things do appear to be shifting, even if much too slowly. Robert Gates was at least somewhat critical of those who came before him, and the President has softened on a handful of previous stances. One can still hope the administration is at least starting to learn one or two of the hundreds of lessons to be learned from the Iraq fiasco. One can hope, though one shouldn’t hold one’s breath.

Like Mr. B used to say, a word to the wise is sufficient. In this case, a word to the wise might have done the trick, if only we’d had a sufficient number of wise people in place before this historic episode was set in motion.

In this case – wisdom AND bravery (AND stellar communication skills) would have been required, as the aftermath of 9/11 “granted” the architects of this current quandary the unchallenged “right” to demonize opposing wise voices. The desire to get a “victory” against an unconventional enemy led to us being driven by groupthink to use a more conventional one as a proxy.

A truly wise leader/leadership advisee would have encouraged the promulgation of peace (not to say that wouldn’t include a just hunt for the perpetrators) in the face of the attack instead of galvanize everyone’s bloodlust in such a manner (and sweeping with it those too cowardly to suggest the folly in that course)

As someone who is in dire fear a draft could affect nephews and seeing that the D-word is starting to creep back in, I have to hold back resentment and just hope TPTB starts to back down, and soon.

Isn’t it funny how our teachers leave such an impression after so many years? I mentioned my 7th grade French teacher in my post today.

Thanks for sharing the clip. I like your take, too.

I hadn’t heard about this, so thank you. Amazing what you say about the flip answers. Very scary in this world of open information that they have been able to get away with it.

Ellen – the list of wise voices (starting with the people in this film, continuing on to folks like Richard Clarke, Gen. Eric Shinseki, etc.) that were either swept out of the circle or simply ignored is too long to believe. Some of the wise voices cautions against even going into Iraq, whereas most of the people in this film were simply trying to keep Iraq from becoming any more of a failure.

I took a business course once where the professor liked to say that leadership requires the ability to make decisions, which sometimes requires knowing who to listen to. Our President likes being known as a decider; the second part is where he seems to fall short.

Frank – the movie was excellent. I went in expecting an informative experience, but it wasn’t until I watched that I realized how many of the suspicions about the conduct of this war were more than just urban myths.

Michael Moore is sometimes his own worst enemy. He often has a message, but his methodology turns people away.

Your post reminds me of an expression that I’m probably only paraphrasing: No one ever learned anything while they were speaking.

Sadly, the current bunch in the White House believes, as many of us did in our early years, that they know everything they need to know. They feel secure in demonstrating that “wisdom” to the world, while most of the world wonders how they could be so ignorant.

While I am still convinced invading Iraq was the right thing to do, I’ve been just as convinced that we’ve mangled most of it since then. I am really looking forward to an opportunity to see this movie. Unfortunately, it won’t be playing within reasonable driving distance until October (one of the few down sides to not living near a major metropolitan area). Still, thanks for the “heads up”.

Anthony – agreed on Michael Moore. That may be the best aspect of this film is that it doesn’t appear to play fast and loose to make any particular point.

Cziltang – that’s what I would guess is the mindset of most of the movie’s interview subjects. These aren’t die-hard doves or anti-war activists, but people who apparently supported the war’s ideal, just not the execution of it.