The doc series overall and is really strong. It takes you from Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda, to his terror attacks, 9/11, Irak, Afghanistan. 60% of this series is about Afghanistan. It's always a very short intro to all topics. For example, they go a tiny bit into how CIA and FBI dropped the ball and allowed terrorists to train in USA and later hijack planes. All while they actually had info on them. But it's just a very short statement about how CIA and FBI didn't share information. There is no deep dive, no agent names are given, it's never fully explained, what information? This is how all info is presented. I knew about 80% of this stuff already and always felt like it was lacking more details. It jumps from point to point and not really explaining anything that clearly.
It's a good doc series. A lot of strong interviews, recordings, points, good information. I did enjoy it and got quite a bit from it. It ties together all the points about the US army, CIA, FBI, Afghanistan, the White House, and media in a tight package. It could have been about CIA only in this conflict and could have been much stronger for it as it would allow for a deeper dive, but I guess they just wanted a fast overview for Americans who didn't quite follow the media on this. Hell, even the Bush lies about Saddam Hussein's WMDs are presented in a shallow way in relation to media. The media actually did an awful job and made it all possible. But the doc just decides to show that via 2 very short clips lasting maybe 30 seconds. That's it. No NYT or Washington Post blindly believing George W. Bush. It was actually a huge deal back then and a shocking reveal. There is just no way in hell any average viewer can possibly understand what point the doc was ACTUALLY making about the media screwing up. It's not a lie, it's not deceit, but clearly the producers made a choice to not make the media look terrible here and instead attacked the White House.
One of my main issues is how they seem to pick bad guys. For example, Bush is evil, bad, arrogant, destructive. Obama is making difficult decisions. Trump is a hateful, ignorant bigot who supports Taliban. Biden is just pulling out troops. So Bush and Trump are making gigantic mistakes and getting people killed. Obama and Biden are kinda just unlucky and don't make any big decisions. I really wish this doc went harder after them, especially Biden. I dislike Bush, and so does Netflix, but maybe they should have hired outside critics who dislike Biden to look into his mistakes to make the last episode stronger. The last episode are the main conclusions making the prior episodes make sense plot wise. But since it's a Biden episode they go super soft here and just overlook the mistakes that made the war a disaster overall.
In prior episodes the Afghanistan war was seen as evil because of Bush. But then as soon as Obama appears and he supports the war the doc suddenly calls it a good war helping people. Now a good president is supporting it so it must be good. And then as Trump wants to pull out the troops he is seen as the devil for stopping a "good war". As Biden pulls out troops nothing much is said. At the end we have a lot of points about how strong the Afghan forces are, how great fighters they are, how many women are getting an education, how great the war was. But then what about the Taliban forces taking over the country? They just showed it happen, but didn't really make that into a big deal as that's on Biden. The US budget that didn't go to defense largely went to educating women and putting them in power. This is seen a victory and worth 20 years and trillions, but how much of that remains? Women were educated into becoming Western feminists and "strong women leaders" who didn't follow the Quran passages about women. Clearly an antithesis to not just Taliban, but even just regular Muslims. There are no "feminist fighter" roles in a primitive society. So the doc at the very end claiming USA has created a feminist paradise with female leaders and female university students seems questionable when you consider the fact that they themselves just showed how Taliban has taken over the country.
Honestly, I was giving a big benefit to the initial episodes. They constantly claimed the Afghanistan war was overall a win of sorts. But I just assumed those were episodes from before Biden. So I figured once Biden screwed up and the newer episodes were made the doc would turn more realistic and negative about the situation. Nope, quite the opposite. As I said, as soon as they move from Trump to Biden the tone shifts from "Taliban supporter president" into "Mission Accomplished" stuff which they don't really prove. They don't even tell us how many had to flee Afghanistan to not get killed. Female sports teams had to either flee or likely lose their lives. Of course the doc message about an overall win cannot be correct because Taliban is still right now creating new restrictions. So what culture war is won here when we don't even know the ending of the conflict? And the claim about making the population healthier is also weird. 20 years have passed. Taliban could have made some progress too even with their primitive structures. They could have bought a bit of modern equipment for hospitals. Instead you have hospitals and universities that Taliban bombs because they are seen as too Western. You could have built this all for 1000th of the price if you worked with Taliban instead of starting this war. Or this feminist progress could have been made in another more willing country without a war. I'm sure Ukraine and India are willing to take US money.
The doc starts out really strong. It becomes weaker as it moves to Obama and Afghanistan as it doesn't dare or want to be as critical towards his goals and politics. From then on it becomes a bit too biased. But the properly critical Bush episodes are really great and are very much worth a watch. Obama and Biden not getting the same critique is a bit weak. And Trump being presented as someone who practically supports Taliban is just insane. It would be better if the same critical voice was used for all aspects of the war and USA.
It's a good doc series. A lot of strong interviews, recordings, points, good information. I did enjoy it and got quite a bit from it. It ties together all the points about the US army, CIA, FBI, Afghanistan, the White House, and media in a tight package. It could have been about CIA only in this conflict and could have been much stronger for it as it would allow for a deeper dive, but I guess they just wanted a fast overview for Americans who didn't quite follow the media on this. Hell, even the Bush lies about Saddam Hussein's WMDs are presented in a shallow way in relation to media. The media actually did an awful job and made it all possible. But the doc just decides to show that via 2 very short clips lasting maybe 30 seconds. That's it. No NYT or Washington Post blindly believing George W. Bush. It was actually a huge deal back then and a shocking reveal. There is just no way in hell any average viewer can possibly understand what point the doc was ACTUALLY making about the media screwing up. It's not a lie, it's not deceit, but clearly the producers made a choice to not make the media look terrible here and instead attacked the White House.
One of my main issues is how they seem to pick bad guys. For example, Bush is evil, bad, arrogant, destructive. Obama is making difficult decisions. Trump is a hateful, ignorant bigot who supports Taliban. Biden is just pulling out troops. So Bush and Trump are making gigantic mistakes and getting people killed. Obama and Biden are kinda just unlucky and don't make any big decisions. I really wish this doc went harder after them, especially Biden. I dislike Bush, and so does Netflix, but maybe they should have hired outside critics who dislike Biden to look into his mistakes to make the last episode stronger. The last episode are the main conclusions making the prior episodes make sense plot wise. But since it's a Biden episode they go super soft here and just overlook the mistakes that made the war a disaster overall.
In prior episodes the Afghanistan war was seen as evil because of Bush. But then as soon as Obama appears and he supports the war the doc suddenly calls it a good war helping people. Now a good president is supporting it so it must be good. And then as Trump wants to pull out the troops he is seen as the devil for stopping a "good war". As Biden pulls out troops nothing much is said. At the end we have a lot of points about how strong the Afghan forces are, how great fighters they are, how many women are getting an education, how great the war was. But then what about the Taliban forces taking over the country? They just showed it happen, but didn't really make that into a big deal as that's on Biden. The US budget that didn't go to defense largely went to educating women and putting them in power. This is seen a victory and worth 20 years and trillions, but how much of that remains? Women were educated into becoming Western feminists and "strong women leaders" who didn't follow the Quran passages about women. Clearly an antithesis to not just Taliban, but even just regular Muslims. There are no "feminist fighter" roles in a primitive society. So the doc at the very end claiming USA has created a feminist paradise with female leaders and female university students seems questionable when you consider the fact that they themselves just showed how Taliban has taken over the country.
Honestly, I was giving a big benefit to the initial episodes. They constantly claimed the Afghanistan war was overall a win of sorts. But I just assumed those were episodes from before Biden. So I figured once Biden screwed up and the newer episodes were made the doc would turn more realistic and negative about the situation. Nope, quite the opposite. As I said, as soon as they move from Trump to Biden the tone shifts from "Taliban supporter president" into "Mission Accomplished" stuff which they don't really prove. They don't even tell us how many had to flee Afghanistan to not get killed. Female sports teams had to either flee or likely lose their lives. Of course the doc message about an overall win cannot be correct because Taliban is still right now creating new restrictions. So what culture war is won here when we don't even know the ending of the conflict? And the claim about making the population healthier is also weird. 20 years have passed. Taliban could have made some progress too even with their primitive structures. They could have bought a bit of modern equipment for hospitals. Instead you have hospitals and universities that Taliban bombs because they are seen as too Western. You could have built this all for 1000th of the price if you worked with Taliban instead of starting this war. Or this feminist progress could have been made in another more willing country without a war. I'm sure Ukraine and India are willing to take US money.
The doc starts out really strong. It becomes weaker as it moves to Obama and Afghanistan as it doesn't dare or want to be as critical towards his goals and politics. From then on it becomes a bit too biased. But the properly critical Bush episodes are really great and are very much worth a watch. Obama and Biden not getting the same critique is a bit weak. And Trump being presented as someone who practically supports Taliban is just insane. It would be better if the same critical voice was used for all aspects of the war and USA.