Can I have an update on the Power of Nightmares please?

[Guy_Montag]

I don't have a TV.

[Skittles]

1. NO TELLY????

WHAT ARE GOING TO DOOOOOOO??????????? :D

[Guy_Montag]

2. What can I say...

I'm a masochist.

[Skittles]

6. oh.......the memories

me grandmum: TURN THAT BLOODY TV OFF!!!! (whenever I was watching Monty Python - she felt it was too risque for me)

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Neocons supported mujaheddin in Afghanistan

both nationalists and Arab Islamists. Some of the latter thought they could achieve political power through things like the Islamic party in Algeria; but the Algerian army had a coup to stop them. So the Islamists started terror campaigns in Algeria and Egypt. But the people didn't flock to them, or rise up against the government; so the extremists started targeting anyone who even though of cooperating in the government (ie most of the population). In Algeria the extremists lost all support, and ended up fighting among themselves.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was collapsing economically and socially. Both the neocons and Afghan mujaheddin thought they had achieved this, but there was really far more to it than that. When European communism collapsed, the neocons were left without their 'uniting foe' that Straussian thought needed. Much to Wolfowitz's annoyance, Bush Senior didn't take over all of Iraq, and the neocons saw this foreign policy as the 'moral relativism' of their enemy Kissinger all over again. So they hijacked the 1992 Republican convention, conning the religious right that they were on a great moral crusade. But the people didn't buy it, and voted for Clinton and "it's the economy, stupid". The neocons then started all the Whitewater investigations, to paint the Clintons as depraved monsters - the 'uniting foe' they needed.

Meanwhile, bin Laden, having been a fighter in Afghanistan, and then a leader of Islamic Jihad, trying to overthrow the Egpytian government, which failed (like Algeria), decided to go back to Afghanistan, the one place where fundamental Islamists might still be able to take over.

[Guy_Montag]

4. Thank you n/t

[LibLabUK]

5. Hmm..

"In Algeria the extremists lost all support, and ended up fighting among themselves."

The Algerian chicken farmer's genocidal plan, that he and his 10 or 20 men alone were the only true muslims and everyone else must die, was both comical and horrifying.

The level of funding and support that the mujaheddin in Afghanistan got from the US, billions of dollars and training in terrorism (including car bombing) was quite simply shocking. I knew that the US trained them and supplied them, but I had no idea it was so much and for so long.

[Pert_UK]

9. Reminded me of Blackadder II.....

First option - kill yourself
2nd option - kill Bob

and the third option?

"Kill everybody in the whole world!"

Yes, when you start believing that anyone who doesn't believe EXACTLY the same thing as you deserves to be killed, that's roughly the time to start wondering whether you've truly understood what God was saying...

[D-Notice]

7. The worse thing about both episodes

is that they're trying to show that Henry Kissinger was a good guy...

On the other hand, I guess most people are good compared to the neo-cons...

[T_i_B]

8. Idealogues the lot of 'em

I saw a lot of parallels between the Jihadi's and certain groups who were not given much coverage, such as marxists and animal rights extremists.

The second programme seemed to be dishing the dirt more on the Jihadi's than the neo-cons but it made me think, maybe it might be a good idea to respond to the theology of Jihad with better theology? I might as well admit my utter ignorance of the Koran but maybe any Muslim DUer's can comment on that idea?

And am I the only person who finds the word "Islamist" really annoying?

[non sociopath skin]

10. Since the US Presidential, I've been suggesting to US friends ...

... that they should try to get The Power of Nightmares shown on BBC America or, even better, PBS, in order to begin the debate on my theocracies of any kidney are bad news.

The Skin

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

11. Online version

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2661915