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While the lead- up to the war in Iraq has been harshly criticized by many, new evidence suggests the carrying out of those plans was shockingly unprofessional and haphazard. The New York Times, along with ProPublica, have obtained a draft version of a report on the implementation of rebuilding plans that exposes practices such as

• faking numbers of Iraqi security forces
• hiring inexperienced personnel, or personnel with experience and qualifications completely unrelated to the job they were hired to do (National Security and Tennis, anyone?)
• decision making that was often carried out on the go, or by only few individuals without consultation of further expert opinions (Big Decisions, Little Debate)

The whole report can be accessed and searched via the New York Times website, where you can read all the outrageous information for yourself.

The report concludes with a part on “Lessons Learned”, and one can only hope that those lessons will be absorbed by the people in charge of the USA’s other war, as the article points out:

“The United States could soon have reason to consult this cautionary tale of deception, waste and poor planning, as both troop levels and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan are likely to be stepped up under the new administration.”

So I was just watching a repeat of the Colbert Report on television today. Will Smith was there, promoting his new Movie Hancock. The story is a little lame. It’s fun at the beginning but gets really pathetic at the end. As you might expect from Will Smith it’s kind of a failure, even for a summer movie. So I can tell you what it’s about without even spoiling a great movie experience. And yes, I have to admit that I’ve seen it.

It’s basically the story of a desperate superhero indulging in alcoholic beverages. So this guy hates his job – but keeps doing it anyway – to the point that the people of Los Angeles wish him to New York City because he usually leaves a big mess every time he’s on a mission. Finally he meets this publicist played by Jason Bateman who wants to help him gain popularity by (among other things) talking him into voluntarily going to jail .

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If you’re free on Friday night and you are in Berlin, head down to the Skizum Studios, for the free screening of the Vietnam documentary “Sir! No Sir!” The movie tells the – relatively unknown – story of the underground GI resistance movement during the Vietnam War.

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