Frontline - Bush's War [PBS - 2008]

Video: XVID 720x576 29.97fps 380Kbps
Audio: PCM 44100Hz stereo 1411Kbps
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Transcript - Part 1-1 and Part 1-2:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/etc/script.html

Transcript - Part 2-1 and Part 2-2:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/etc/script2.html

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A two part special series that tells the epic story of how the Iraq war began
and how it has been fought, both on the ground and deep inside the government.

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.

"Parts of this history have been told before," Kirk says. "But no one has laid
out the entire narrative to reveal in one epic story the scope and detail of how
this war began and how it has been fought, both on the ground and deep inside
the government."

In the fall of 2001, even as America was waging a war in Afghanistan, another
hidden war was being waged inside the administration. Part 1 of Bush's War tells
the story of this behind-the-scenes battle over whether Iraq would be the next
target in the war on terror.

On one side, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Director of Central
Intelligence George Tenet squared off against Vice President Dick Cheney and his
longtime ally, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The battles were over
policy -- whether to attack Iraq; the role of Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi; how to
treat detainees; whether to seek United Nations resolutions; and the value of
intelligence suggesting a connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks
-- but the conflict was deeply personal.

"Friendships were dashed," Powell's deputy Richard Armitage tells FRONTLINE. As
the war within the administration heated up, Armitage and Powell concluded that
they were being shut out of key decisions by Cheney and Rumsfeld. "The battle of
ideas, you generally come up with the best solution. When somebody hijacks the
system, then, just like a hijacked airplane, very often no good comes of it,"
Armitage adds.

Others inside the administration believe they understand the motivation behind
some of the vice president's actions. "I think the vice president felt he kind
of looked death in the eye on 9/11," former White House counterterrorism
coordinator Richard Clarke says. "Three thousand Americans died. The building
that the vice president used to work in blew up, and people died there. This was
a cold slap in the face. This is a different world you're living in now. And the
enemy's still out there, and the enemy could come after you. That does cause you
to think [about] things differently."

More than anything else, the Iraq war will be the lasting legacy of the Bush
presidency. Part 2 of Bush's War examines that war -- beginning with the quick
American victory in Iraq, the early mistakes that were made, and then recounting
the story of how chaos, looting and violence quickly engulfed the country.

As American forces realized they were unprepared for the looting that followed
the invasion, plans for a swift withdrawal of troops were put on hold. With only
a few weeks' preparation, American administrator L. Paul Bremer was sent to find
a political solution to a rapidly deteriorating situation. Bremer's first moves
were to disband the Iraqi military and remove members of Saddam Hussein's party
from the government. They were decisions that the original head of
reconstruction, Gen. Jay Garner (Ret.), begged Bremer to reconsider at the time.
Now they are seen by others as one of the first in a series of missteps that
would lead Iraq into a full-blown insurgency.

But Bremer has his defenders: "We believed, Bremer believed, and I think the
leadership in Washington believed that it was very important to demonstrate to
the Iraqi people that whatever else was going to happen, Saddam and his cronies
were not coming back," Walter Slocombe, the national security adviser to Bremer,
tells FRONTLINE.

Garner was not the only one on the outside. As senior officials complained about
inattention at the top, Gen. Tommy Franks and his deputy, Gen. Michael DeLong --
the generals who had planned the war -- found that decisions were being made
without them as well.

"All the recommendations that we were making now in the Phase IV part weren't
being taken -- weren't being taken by Bremer or Rumsfeld," DeLong tells
FRONTLINE. "That's when Franks said, 'I'm done.' They said, 'Well, you'll be
chief of staff of the Army.' He said, 'No, I'm done.'"

What followed is well documented: insurgency, sectarian strife, prisoner abuse
and growing casualties. But within the administration, a new battle over
strategy was being fought -- this one between a new secretary of state,
Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. The clash between America's
top diplomat and its chief defense official would go on for more than two years
and be settled only after the Republican loss in the 2006 congressional
elections. It was then that the president forced Rumsfeld out, ended his
strategy of slow withdrawal and ordered a surge of troops. FRONTLINE goes behind
closed doors to tell the most recent chapter in this ongoing story, and asks
what Bush will leave for a new U.S. president both in Iraq and in the larger war
on terror.