FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith travels through a fractured land to reveal just what it will take to stabilize the volatile nation and accelerate the transfer of power to Iraqis.
“…whether award-winning documentarian and producer Martin Smith intended it or not, “Beyond Baghdad” is a refreshingly fair portrayal of the complications coalition forces in Iraq face and shows the intricate tribal and ethnic fractures that run throughout the Middle East.
“…it’s a far cry from the stinging rebuke of the occupiers’ policy many might expect. ….Smith does a good job explaining the cultural landscape and its embedded squabbles — reasonable and irrational.”
– Weekly Standard
“…correspondent Martin Smith’s enlightening and, ultimately depressing exploration of American interactions outside the Iraqi capital…”
“The good humor and good intentions of the U.S. military men and women interviewed here are impressive, but there’s also a sense of fatalism to their remarks: We’re doing what we can, but who knows?”
– Chicago Tribune
“What [Martin Smith] uncovers here is nothing that hasn’t been written about extensively in long, detailed newspaper stories. But seeing the volatile nature of all the disparate people and hearing their tales of tribal revenge and jockeying for position in a post-U.S. Iraq, you very clearly get the sense of how long it’s going to take to get Iraq stable — if we ever do.” …
“If the Bush administration doesn’t want to hear the words ‘quagmire’ or ‘morass,’ it’s not going to be happy with the overall impression conveyed by ‘Beyond Baghdad,’ which is this: What the hell have we got ourselves into?”
– San Francisco Chronicle
