VIZ HUNTING

❏ Combat footage.
❏ Leaders arriving to iraq
❏ Fall of saddam
❏ News footage
❏ 4-6 clips of George Bush saying “Freedom”
❏ Colin Powell Speech

Animation Style thoughts

-Map/People/Quote Template
-People/Quote Template
-Chapter Slate

Soundbite Bank

:30 KABC TV ABC News Iraq War Shock & Awe March 19, 20_original.mp4
“They have now crossed over the border into iraq it is now a full scale
invasion”
3:43 KCBS TV CBS Evening News Iraq War Bombing Begins P_original.mp4
“Opening phases of the invasion of iraq

21:23 ABC News - Iraq War begins - Nightline......_original (38:02 visual)

Classic map of bombs dropped with soundbyte
38:54 ABC News - Iraq War begins - Nightline......_original (39;05 visual)
“The planes are loaded up with 1000lbs and 2000lbs guided bombs and missiles,
some of those are bunker busters”
51:01 ABC News - Iraq War begins - Nightline......_original
“the arab world is not surprised that the united states is trying to kill
saddam hussein”
05:10 052 Iraq War Debate (2003) w_ Patrice O'Neal, Jim _original
“Gwb keeps saying ‘weapons of mass destruction over and over again because he
just learned that short phrase”

05:29 052 Iraq War Debate (2003) w_ Patrice O'Neal, Jim _original
“You dont really see congress grilling bush over an open fire that often. Like
today he comes out and speaks to the coast guard which is a famously dangerous
liberal group”

00:00 Bernie in 2002_ Iraq War Would Be _Terrible Mistak_original

00: 34 Flashback_ Rep. Bernie Sanders Opposes Iraq War..._original

“All intelligence committees agree saddam is highly unlikely to have or use
weapons of mass destruction”
Why did we go to war in Iraq?

GLITCH CUTS OF WAR, combat, bush, oil, map, quick

Growing up the narrative was always

Oil

Clip of protestor or news person saying “OIL”

But that’s the lazy explanation. Not quite it.

And it wasn’t even really about a debate about weapons of
mass destruction.

We went to war in Iraq because several powerful american

men wanted to. They thought it vital. Important. Necessary.

And here we are. 18 years later. Nearly 10 thousand Animation: simple elegant table with two
americans dead. Over 200,000 Iraqis dead.

columns

All these numbers ticking up. For ones that

have a range just have the number go to the
middle of the range.

SOURCE HERE

Over a trillion tax dollars.

And the result: a middle east that is less stable than ever
in part because of the US presence.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN I lived through this. I studied it

while it was happening. I studied it in college and then
grad school, And yet only now have I taken the time to
really look back and pick apart what EXACTLY happened.

Visuals moment of johnny BTS.

This is how the US stole Iraq

SLATE RAMP UP
-johnny bts
Clips from invasion
Combat footage
Sound bites from bush cheney powell news anchors

Chapter 1. Planting the Seed

We hear new reporting from 9/11 playing under the
chapter slate. We see a few quick clips of 9/11. Not
too indulgent of the grim imagery.

It’s the night of 9/11. The country is reeling. Who

did this? Why? How will the US respond?

It soon became clear to intelligence and counter

terrorism people that al aqeda was behind the attack.

That night, at the pentagon, which had just been hit

by an airplane, a memo comes in from the deputy
secretary of state.

The memo is urgent. Its for the defense intelligence
agency. And it tells them not to look into Al qaeda
but to search for ways Iraq has been involved in
terrorism in the previous decade.
MOCK UP MEMO:
1:26am 9/12/01 memo to DIA from Wolfowitz: "From
DepSec Def, Hot!!! Tasking: Providing information,
paper format, history & assessment of Iraqi
involvement in terrorism since Gulf War."
-Deputy Sec. of Defense

ONCAM The intelligence agents who got this memo

scratched their head. These people were very familiar
with all the intel and knew that the terror attacks
were AQ,

Al qeda’s based in Afghanistan, a thousand km from Map showing IRAQ and AFGH with icon of Sadam in iraq
saddam. There’s nothing linking the two. We were just and iron of Osama in AFGH
attacked by al qaeda, why are they asking about Iraq? On the last line cut back to memo.
The person who sent that memo, the deputy sec of def Slide from memo to Cut out of Paul Wolfowitz
paul wolfowitz and he was just getting started.

A few days after 9/11 the president gathered with all Camp david laurel Lodge
his top advisers at his forest retreat outside of
Washington DC

They were there to discuss how to respond to the
attacks.
Mock up of powerpoints slides but pared down black
and white. First slide says
“Destroying International Terrorism.”
Briefing by CIA director george tenet
Camp David
September 15, 2001

The focus was on attacking afghanistan where al qaeda Next slide: cut out of AFGH
had been given safe haven by the government.

They’re sitting around debating how to retaliate

against Al qaeda. And then who pipes ip again but
this guy paul wolfowitze. This time with the support
of his boss, secretary of defense donald rumsfeld.

Wolfowitz is like you know 9/11 was pretty
sophisticated. There’s no way the rag tag alqeda
could have pulled it off alone. They probably had
help from sadaam. And in fact, when it comes to
global terror, sadaam is actually the “head of the
snake”
I think this is animation and on cam cutting back and
forth. I want to seee woflowitz and then above him as
if in his mind he imaging osama and saddam linking up
and making 9/11 happen (cut out of butning buldings)
and then focus on sadaam and somehow he is now the
head of a snake. Music is getting more and more
intense loud and then after “snake” is dissipates and
reverberates

Music cuts...akward.Oncam:
everyone in the room was kind of like....ummm what
the hell is this guy talking about. Saddam hussein is
a bad guy but he’s not the head of the snake of
international terror.

After some astonished glances, the head of the Cut out of cover black and text on screen with extact
counter terrorism center raises his hand and says what he says”
““we were attacked on September 11 by Osama bin Laden
and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein and Iraq
have nothing whatsoever to do with this.””

And indeed they move on. But this guy paul wolfowitz
doesn’t give up.

Later that day, there was a break in meetings.
Attorney general jon ashcfroft was playing piano and
a few others were singing along including condoleezza
rice. And president bush is on the other side of the
room by the fire drinking a cup of coffee when who
cozy up next to him but the persistent but paul
wollfowitz. Bush is like “ugh here we go again”
Back to the map and loads of SFX of piano and
clattering while we look at map of camp david.
It would be fun to do a cut out of all these people.
Like jon ashcroft cut head cut out on a cut out body
playing a piano.

Wolfowitz is like “hear me out” then proceeds to

unpack his fantasy for how easy it would be to invade
iraq.

He’s like ok listen, half the people people in iraq Animate “battle plan”
either live up here where they dont like sadaam cuz
their kurds or down here where close to our friend
kuwait. We could easily take these two regions and
liberate the people.

oh and in doing so we would naturally take over the

major oil fields, thus cutting off sadaam from his
main revenue source.

I can almost see george Bush’s ear perk up when he

heard this last part, bush being a former texas oil
man.

This plan intrigued bush. He literally said “why

didnt you say this during the meeting??”

Put yourself in bush’s shoes for a second. You

country was just brutally attacked. And there wasn’t
a clear easy target to retaliate against. There was
just this tiny, group of fighters hiding in caves.

After a day of meetings on this, the president was

probably realizing that retaliating against AQ would
be like trying to his smoke with a baseball bat.

What he wanted, and as it turns out what a lot of

americans and law makers wanted, was a clear decisive
target. Someone they could take out.

A home run. Story blocks of slow mo hitting home run.

I believe this day at camp david, four days after

9/11 is when president bush decided he would find a
way to invade iraq. Even though it had nothing to do
with AQ. he and the people around him would find a
way.

So I guess all of this begs the question: why is paul

wolfowitz so dfam obsessed with invading iraq that
during a time of national crisis he would do
everything in his power to plant this idea in the
president’s head?

Well lets remember that sadaam hussein was a horrible

horrible leader. He ran a dictatorship that committed
a mass genocide against the ethnic group the kurds,
torture, and a million over horrible atrocities. He
was a really horrible human who killed and hurt his
people throughout his regin.

No one liked this guys and Here in the US there was a

bipartisan push to see him go. To liberate iraq from
this horrible dictator.

Paul Wolfowitz was a major advocate in this push. He

had been the ambassador to indonesia, a majority
mulsim country that is also a tolerant democracy and
well before 9/11 he had this vision of the US
liberating Iraq, turning it into a model of democracy
in the middle east. And in his view the only thing
that was stopping that form happening was this
ruthless dictator.

So when 9/11 came around, he saw the opportunity to

piggy back off of the momentum and fear, and realize
his big dream of liberating Iraq.
And the people who could actually make that happen
were the perfect audience. Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfield, Condi Rice, these people grew up in teh
cold war, they were more concerned with projecting
american power and defeating actual regimes with
actual armies, not in fighting the tedious new
version of war where rogue fighters hide in caves and
drive car bombs into your base.
Clips from congress hearings about Iraq to get us
into the next chapter.

Ch2. How to Sell A War

CLIP: December 9 2001 Cheney on Meet the Press:
“Well, the evidence is pretty conclusive that the
Iraqis have indeed harbored terrorists.”

So over the next year these guys start their campaign Line up of the top leaders
to sell the american public on a war with a Iraq. -Bush
-Cheney
-Rumsfeld
-Fife
-Wolfowitz
-George John Tenet

They get the british onboard and soon there’s a full Tony blaire
blown debate which revolved around this story that
saddam has really big terrible weapons that he will Cut to sound bites of debate listed on
likely give to terrorist to strike the US in another top
9/11 type attack but way worse.

Clip: someone testifying before congress or on the

news talking about “Weapons of mass destruction” or
“he would gladly give these weapons to terrorist”

But wait. Don’t be fooled. The lead up to the Iraq

war is often remembered as this debate on WMDs but im
here to tell you to think about it differently.
The decision to go to war in iraq was already made,
moments after 9/11 when a small group of powerful
mean imagined a glorious military campaign to
liberate oppressed iraqi’s and topple a dictator to
make themselves and their country feel like we got a
homerun win after we were attacked.

That decision was made, all the way at the very top.
And from there everything molded to fit that
decision.

Did sadaam have these weapons of mass destruction,

did he want to give them to terrorists. No. the
evidence was threadbear, But these guys turned into
tarot readers who look at tea leaves and see whatever
they need to see to support a decision they made many
months earlier.

And it wasn’t just these guys. Soon the vision spread

to the american congress who were also getting on
board with this vision of america, a force for good,
toppling a bad guy,.

[Home run clip]

It’s really a wild study in human psychology. When

you’re a true believer, everything you see confirms
what you want to believe. We all do it. Its just
scary when what you are believing has such deep
ramifications for human suffering.

So by the end, After weapons inspectors had done like

700 inspections and found no weapons, this group of
guys eventually just resorted to full on lying, dick
cheney still get up in a speech and says “simply
stated, there can be NO doubt that saddam has WMD

And even secretary of state colin powell, who was

very against the iraq invasion and the usefulness of
war general, even he got on board, painstakingly
going over a bunch of thin or non existent evidence
in front of the UN and claiming it was water tight

Sound bite from colin powell speed at the UN

“My colleagues, every statement I make today is
backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not
assertions. What we’re giving you are facts and
conclusions based on solid intelligence.”

And by october 10 2002 the US congress was on board. Look at C span for 10/10/02 see if we
Nearly all republicans and a sizable group of can get a clip/sound bite from the vote
democrats voted to authorize the US to use force
against Iraq.

Sound up to a clip from that day.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Authorization_for_Use_of_Military_Force_
Against_Iraq_Resolution_of_2002#/media/
File:Bush_auth_jbc.jpg

Invasion
Starts with SFX of shock and awe bombing.

Sound up from news reporting the first days of the

invasion.

Bush gave a speech on an aircraft carrier two months :36 of this we see “mission
after the invasion in which a giant sign read accomplished”
“mission accomplished”.

This is the type of thing bush surely dreamt about Recap visuals to camp david,
while sitting at camp david drinking coffee listening War plan graphic
to paul wolfowitz explain his plan. Home run clip.

But this is the part of the story when all the

dreams. The fantasies, the visions of glory started
to topple. Mission accomplished was really, mission
just beginning.

Mash up of combat, insurgencies. ISIS

One of the first things the US did after they took Map
over baghdad was to dissolve the huge iraqi army. In
typical simplistic thinking of these visionary
leaders, the idea was doing so when allow them to
start fresh with a new iraqi army.

So now you have ex-iraqi army members who are angry

and the US and unemployed oh AND THEY ALL HAVE
EXTENSIVE MILITARY EXPERIENCE. So they run off a
number of rebel groups that were cropping up to
oppose the USOne of the groups was called Al qaeda in
iraq qhich later turned into ISI. which eventaully
became the islamic state of iraq and syria. ISIS, a
well oiled governmental and military organization run
by many of the military leaders who were disbanned by
the US.

So the Iraq war turns into the US trying to fight off

the growing rebellion. Billions of dollars turns into
tens of billions turns into hundred of billions.
Eventually crossing over a trillion dollars of tax
payer money to fight this war.

Sadaam hussein was a really bad guy. He commiteed

mass genocide against his own people imprisoned and
executed many others. In all the number of lives he
took as a leader was around 250,000. Over his 25
years in power.

And yet in just 8 years of war in IRaq, far more

people were killed by this war.

And for what. Why did we do this? How was it worth

it?

I really believe that in the aftermath of the towers

falling, this group of guys began constructing a
story for themselves. A fantasy. One not grounded in
real facts from intelligence. But one grounded in
fear, in a desire to be the hero, in the messaniac
complex that has always infected the powerful.

That fantasy trickled down and spread to other people

in power. Leading us into one of the most
catastrophic and unnecessary wars in modern history.