Has anybody been watching this series? I thought episode one ("Jihad") was very factual and informative (about the 20th century history of radical Islam and the background of al Quaeda and some of its leaders). The next two-part episode, called "Warriors" and "Homecoming," was also very interesting and well made. Warriors was very high-quality fly-on-the-wall type journalism, and the soldiers' written accounts in Homecoming were very powerful and well-adapted to TV. It sure beats the heck out of network TV's various abandoned approaches to covering the war with things like macho embeds or in-studio decorations of soldiers' photographs, followed up by little substance or information that can be used by the audience to form an opinion about the war except the "support our troops" refrain. Now I'm watching the next episode, including "Case for War," Richard Pearle's self-narrated essay where he give a justification for going to war and continuing to stay in Iraq. Again, it's a fantastic choice to give Pearle the chance to make the case for why the war was the right thing to do. Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone else saw it and has an opinion on the material? If you missed it, I would recommend watching it when/if it is run on your local station again.
No just missed it but there is a two hour follow up on our KET2 or PBS2 now at 1:00 a.m. I'll try to watch without upsetting the nature of business. There is no offerings for the whole series though. This must bee the condensed version...
I watched the episode with Pearle because while I do disagree with him I enjoy watching him try to defend himself. The highlight for me was his session with Pat Buchanan, and how he tried to convince him that since they were old comrades-in-arms and that should agree now on the USA role in dominating the world. Pearle's belief is that the USA should dictate the world agenda. As Pearle said, "there has to some benefit to being a Superpower. Buchanan, blunt as usual, told him he sounded like a "Bolshevik" and reminded him that Pearle's present philosophy of "covert or die" was the same one the Communists tried to impose on the world. It was a great moment, and Pearle didn't know what to make of it. Poor guy.
I saw part of the infomerical for Perle. I was sickened. I lasted around 40 minutes. I finally had to turn it off.