With over 3,000 US troops dead, Saddam Hussein executed and no clear idea of how to end the war in Iraq, let alone what’s going on with the war on terror, Film Threat presents the oft-discussed, seldom seen BBC three-part documentary series “The Power of Nightmares.” According to the official BBC synopsis:
“At the heart of the story are two groups: the American neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. These two groups have changed the world but not in the way either intended. Together they created today’s nightmare vision of an organised terror network. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and authority in a disillusioned age. Those with the darkest fears became the most powerful.”
If nothing else, this three-part documentary series puts forth ideas that are often pushed under the rug, if they are spoken at all, and is worth watching at least once. So far, the series has only been shown in the US once, during the 2005 True/False Film Festival, but now you can watch all three parts here at Film Threat.
“The rise of the politics of fear begins in 1949 with two men whose radical ideas would inspire the attack of 9/11 and influence the neo-conservative movement that dominates Washington. Both these men believed that modern liberal freedoms were eroding the bonds that held society together. The two movements they inspired set out, in their different ways, to rescue their societies from this decay.” – BBC
“On December 25th 1979, Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. Moscow was able to install a friendly government in a neighbouring country but at a price. The invasion gave a common cause to an extraordinary alliance of radical Islamists in Afghanistan and around the world and to the neo-conservatives in the US. It was a key battleground of the Cold War. ” – BBC
“In the wake of the shock and panic created by the devastating attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, the neo-conservatives reconstructed the radical Islamists in the image of their last evil enemy, the Soviet Union – a sinister web of terror run from the centre by Osama Bin Laden in his lair in Afghanistan.” – BBC
