Vaara says what I’ve been noticing as well about the simularities between the neocons and the Al Quaida tendency as shown in the power of nightmare documentary:
What really struck me about this show is the extent to which both ideologies — the Muslims and “Team B” — share certain characteristics. For example, the belief in fear as a way of motivating populations to behave a certain way. And a certain devotion to violence. But most profoundly, the Straussians and the Islamists are both wedded to the idea that individualism and liberal democracy are evil. And that what is required for the construction of a safe, stable society is the complete elimination of the Other.
Meanwhile, Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber has responded to a ridiculous column by David “cruisemissile liberal” Aaronovitch which asserts that this documentary claims that Al Quaida is a myth:
It is hard to know exactly where Curtis will go next, but I expect him to argue that whilst Islamic terrorist groups certainly exist (who could deny that!) they don’t constitute a co-ordinated international network (AQ+ Hamas + Hezbollah, etc etc) of the kind that is often suggested. He’ll probably suggest that such “links” as are claimed are largely an artefact of similar propaganda to that behind the last “international terror network”. Anyone who has followed the pathetic attempts by figures like the Daily Telegraph’s Con Coughlin to demonstrate a Saddam-AQ link will probably suspect he has a point.
Chris is skeptical about what is going to be the subject of the second episode in the series, about the Muhajedin war in Afghanistan against the USSR and the neocon’s supposed influence on this:
For example, next week’s episode is supposed to be about the neocons and the Islamic fundamentalists joining forces to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, as if this was a project dreamed up in the neocons’ heads. But the idea of drawing them into a war in Afghanistan was conceived not by the neocons but by Zbigniew Brzezinski under the Carter administration.
I’m skeptical about this as well, having read George Crile’s excellent if somewhat naive book My Enemy’s Enemy, which demonstrated that in fact the funding for the Afghan resistance movement came from Congress and from Democratic members of Congress in fact rather than from the Reagan government or the neocons. The latter Crile showed were more enamoured of the Contras in Nicaragua. (In fact, the fuckup there seems to be much more a neocon hallmark than the relative succesful campaign in Afghanistan, even if the followup there after the soviets left was non-existent.)