Currently Frontline: Bush's War By . see related

Wow I haven't blogged in so long.

I sat up late last night watching a documentary and surfing blogs and vlogs while I was watching and I realised I missed blogging. Does anyone else do that? I find its a real problem for me. I should never watch TV with a laptop in reach. I think I have an addiction to fact checking and background searching on the internet. If I am watching something, be it a documentary, news story, movie, tv show or whatever, I find myself constantly looking for tangent information about what I am watching. I'll usually be checking reviews on www.rottentomatoes.com, looking at actor / director bio / filmography info on www.imdb.com, checking out latest scoop info on www.aintitcool.com, surfing www.wikipedia.org for encyclopaedic type info or just generally googling for info. I have a restless mind always on the lookout for fine details (why oh why?) and I find it both enjoyable and also at times infuriating as I will constantly have to rewind what I am watching having missed half of it because of one of my tangent web searches.

Okay so back to blogging: where oh where has the time gone? Basically ever since I moved out of home I ran out of time. Why? I should have more time. I am pretty sure I do have more time. I am closer to home. I am living the life (in terms of day to day use of my time) that I want to live. Maybe its just what happens as the years pass. Either we really do have less time or we start to think we do.

What have I been upto? (Could be renamed: Will anyone even read this blog?)

Since May 2007 I have gone back to uni, solidified my position in a new job and done a world trip. I have also moved again argh! Moving is the pits of the world. Hate it with a passion. I think Facebook also killed my blogging a bit too. Even though theyre totally disimilar in terms of the community, in the end it just comes down to how much energy I have to communicate and socialise in a post uni era of life. Not much energy to spare!

So why return? I dont know. Maybe just to write. I enjoy it. I am fairly opinionated so perhaps this may give my bf a break from my opining haha. Just kidding.

Return entry:

Well I will start with a review of Bush's War, a documentary that disects the Bush administration's whole act of waging war on Iraq from the day of September 11 right through to just prior to the 2008 presidential election. Maybe not the sexiest return entry, but it is the most recent thing I have done and I think thats where I want to start. I stayed up till 3:30am last night watching it. 

Yep I am Australian, and I have a keen interest in America so this was bought for me as a Christmas present. My interests however are more often about US history and politics, not war, and it was given to me as a bookend to another DVD which was a focus on Barack Obama and it makes for compelling viewing. My interest in the US intensified after 9/11 (I was 22 at the time) and I must admit to largely training my attention on all things other than the Iraq war beyond the political context, even though I knew I was ignoring one of the most important events in the history of the US. This documentary was a real eye opener. I would say I am like most observers of the conflict (who have no direct connection to it) and see it for its difficulty and sheer horror and have been overwelmed by its complexity, and frankly, sheer length. Keeping a mental hold on the conflict is not easy without real absorption. This documentary puts everything in such well crafted chronological order and necessary context that one comes out of it with what feels like an infinitely more informed viewpoint and one I hope to be a starting point for further study on my part.

Viewing it was especially timely for me given the recent election and imminent inauguration of Barack Obama, and I imagine, was much more timely for US audiences pre-election. I started out with a negative pre-9/11 opinion of the Bush administration, which became supportive immediately post 9/11, and has solidified into a poor opinion, specifically in connection to the response of 9/11 post Afghanistan and the handling of the 9/11 Commission.

This documentary for me expanded upon my initial distrust of the administration as it opens an endless parade of further avenues for questioning and slams home my initial opinion even further. Don't get me wrong I still find America and its society fascinating and the people mainly fantastic, I just dont like the Bush administration.

Economics aside, the next 2 years will be VERY interesting for America.

Good luck Mr Obama.