The Power Of Nightmares

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Harry Vest

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THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES
I highly recommend everyone on this board to seek this documentary out and see what you think. It's a BBC production and is directed by Adam Curtis. It tells of the history of radical Islam and the Neo-Conservatives. Extremely interesting stuff. Something you'll never see on CNN...Unfortunately. Check it out and see what you think.
 
As of January 1, 2008, the film has yet to be aired in the United States. Curtis has commented on this failure:


“Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, 'Who are you to say this?' and then he added, 'We would get slaughtered if we put this out.' When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven't heard from him.
 
Since when does any broadcast TV network air documentaries at all? Secondly, when do they ever air anything foreign on these networks? They don't. Content-aside, even if this was the least offensive film ever made, it would never air on American broadcast TV. Period.

Secondly, I'm cynical about this trend of "oversimplification by documentary," where, rather than confronting global problems, we'd rather argue that they never existed in the first place and, of course, America is the "real enemy." Not surprisingly, these kinds of arguments require large leaps in logic and the glossing over of other factual material:

http://www.villagevoice.com/film/0549,hoberman,70708,20.html

Curtis discusses the convergence of neocon and jihadist interest in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan. But his narrative comes unraveled both in his underemphasis on Desert Storm's unintended consequences and overemphasis on the conservative "political terrorism" directed against President Bill Clinton.

...

The Power of Nightmares is essentially polemical. As partisan filmmaking it is often brilliant and sometimes hilarious...

One thing worth remembering is that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion at all was due to Carter's National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who has been labeled the Democratic Party's answer to Henry Kissinger. Secondly, I have a hard time believing, thus far, that the neoconservative movement and Henry Kissinger are at all opposed, ideologically. In fact, this recent article certainly doesn't portray Kissinger as an anti-neocon; he, quite predictably, makes the argument that the U.S. needs to stay in Iraq until we get the job done, and argues for European troop boosts in Iraq--precisely what Bush advocates.

So enjoy the documentary, but I imagine it contains about as much nuanced factual knowledge as an Ann Coulter book on liberalism. Unfortunately, none of our long-running problems have easy answers or even easy causes, and it certainly doesn't help solve these problems by resorting to partisan oversimplification and knee-jerk demonization.
 
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