The Power of Nightmare (2004)
The rise of politics of fear
#03. The Shadows in the Cave
With the appointment of Bill Clinton as the President and the fail of various uprisings to establish Muslim governments in the Islamic countries, it looked both the neoconservatives and the jihadists movements were doomed to fail. They appear to be marginalized, losing the flavour of the times. The turning point came with the 2001 destruction of the New York Twin Towers.
After failing to receive people's support in Algeria and Egypt, in 1998, Zawahari and Osama retreated to the barren land of Afghanistan. They then changed the strategy. Instead of creating mayhem in Islamic countries, they creating ruckus in concerns of the enemies of the Muslims (in their eyes).Attacks were targeted at embassies, hotels and outlets frequented by their enemy's citizens (read Americans) in Kenya, Tanzania. Volunteers from various countries who came to Afghanistan to serve in the name of religion were recruited as suicide bombers who died in the name of religion, not for hatred of Americans!
Osama was a financier for many anti American activities. He himself did not own any army to boast. For media publicity, he used to hire rag-tag soldier for PR!
Just like that, Khalid Sheikh Muhamad approached BinLaden for funds to bomb American. This event sprang the neoconservatives into action. They quickly cooked up a myth, portraying Osama as an all powerful General monitoring his army from the fortress high up in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. They even gave a name to the non existent movement - Al Qaeda. The jihadist on the other side were thrilled by such recognition!
The familiar faces in the Reagan administration who created an enviable all powerful enemy in a collapsing Soviet came to the forefront - Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
US allied with the Northern Alliance, the warlords who were fighting with the Talibans (ultra conservative group) and started paying them by the count of head of death soldiers that they killed.
Even though there was no evidence of such a sophisticated network, the neoconservative created such a fantasy, a frenzy with terms like sleeper cells and dirty bombs which could spray lethal doses of radiation to the general public!
Slowly, the web of deceit began to implicate Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attack and justified an attack on sovereign country.
Politicians now have a different role as a protector from fear of an imagined bleak future. Just like the Green Movement in the 80s who advocated that the Governments of the day had the moral obligation to protect the world from environmental degradation even though they could not prove the decay then, the politicians embarked on the Precautionary Principle. It says that 'not having the evidence that something might be a problem is not a reason for not taking action as if were a problem'. Hence, action without evidence seem justified!
In the beginning, two thinkers (Kutb and Strauss) were disillusioned with the world we lived in. In pursuit of a better world, it appears that they have both failed. The world, as it is today, is as confused and chaotic, if not, worse than it was in the 50s.
The rise of politics of fear
#03. The Shadows in the CaveWith the appointment of Bill Clinton as the President and the fail of various uprisings to establish Muslim governments in the Islamic countries, it looked both the neoconservatives and the jihadists movements were doomed to fail. They appear to be marginalized, losing the flavour of the times. The turning point came with the 2001 destruction of the New York Twin Towers.
After failing to receive people's support in Algeria and Egypt, in 1998, Zawahari and Osama retreated to the barren land of Afghanistan. They then changed the strategy. Instead of creating mayhem in Islamic countries, they creating ruckus in concerns of the enemies of the Muslims (in their eyes).Attacks were targeted at embassies, hotels and outlets frequented by their enemy's citizens (read Americans) in Kenya, Tanzania. Volunteers from various countries who came to Afghanistan to serve in the name of religion were recruited as suicide bombers who died in the name of religion, not for hatred of Americans!
Osama was a financier for many anti American activities. He himself did not own any army to boast. For media publicity, he used to hire rag-tag soldier for PR!
Just like that, Khalid Sheikh Muhamad approached BinLaden for funds to bomb American. This event sprang the neoconservatives into action. They quickly cooked up a myth, portraying Osama as an all powerful General monitoring his army from the fortress high up in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghanistan. They even gave a name to the non existent movement - Al Qaeda. The jihadist on the other side were thrilled by such recognition!
The familiar faces in the Reagan administration who created an enviable all powerful enemy in a collapsing Soviet came to the forefront - Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
US allied with the Northern Alliance, the warlords who were fighting with the Talibans (ultra conservative group) and started paying them by the count of head of death soldiers that they killed.
Slowly, the web of deceit began to implicate Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attack and justified an attack on sovereign country.
Politicians now have a different role as a protector from fear of an imagined bleak future. Just like the Green Movement in the 80s who advocated that the Governments of the day had the moral obligation to protect the world from environmental degradation even though they could not prove the decay then, the politicians embarked on the Precautionary Principle. It says that 'not having the evidence that something might be a problem is not a reason for not taking action as if were a problem'. Hence, action without evidence seem justified!
In the beginning, two thinkers (Kutb and Strauss) were disillusioned with the world we lived in. In pursuit of a better world, it appears that they have both failed. The world, as it is today, is as confused and chaotic, if not, worse than it was in the 50s.
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