BBC - The Power of Nightmares

How our governments manipulated the public's fear and created a phantom enemy. Al-Qaeda, the organized terrorist network, really a phantom enemy, which America and her allies are chasing nothing more than a fantasy. Al-Qaeda is not an organized terrorist network. Rather, it is an idea. Revolutionary Islam.

I watched this a couple of years ago. Quite informative.

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Wave is to particle as zero is to one as bagpipes are to modem noises.

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Originally posted by {b.s.e.} I watched this a couple of years ago. Quite informative.

Seriously, all this time, I thought Al-Qaeda was an organized, octopus-like terrorist network with cells in dozens of countries, etc. etc. Now I know Al-Qaeda is much more an idea than a terrorist network. Military power will never stifle ideas. My government has deceived me all this time. We have more to fear from their rising authoritarianism than from terrorism itself.

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You might want to stop drinking tap water, while you're thinking about all these important things.

http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.htm

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Wave is to particle as zero is to one as bagpipes are to modem noises.

Excellent documentary, watched this a year a two ago. Just goes to show you the lengths the government will go to brainwash people.

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Originally posted by culorut Excellent documentary, watched this a year a two ago. Just goes to show you the lengths the government will go to brainwash people.

Like poisoning your brain with fluoride?

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Wave is to particle as zero is to one as bagpipes are to modem noises.

mind control

LOL

seriously folks, al queerda ain't shit . like all Muslim ass hole extremist , they are nothing but a bunch of homosexuals that are nothing but major drama queens...
Bush and Co milked them like a new born on his momma's tit. and Middle Ignorant America fell for it

Ain't that the truth.

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Originally posted by culorut Ain't that the truth.

for once, me and you agree

Very nice documentary. Thanks for the post. I wonder when it was produced, since it didn't mention the London transit system attacks, though the threat of the gassing of the tube was mentioned.

I'm not so sure that the conclusion of the documentary is so clear-cut. They say that eventually people will get over being afraid, just like we got over the post-WW2 political ideals, and that at that time, all of this politics of fear will simply evaporate, people will breathe a collective sigh of relief, and things will be "normal" again.

However, just as it was mentioned in the documentary itself, there is no end to the politics of fear. It is just at the moment when we decide to stop being afraid that there will be the Great Attack that will disable society. It is this prospect that will forever keep terror in people's minds. In Canada, for example, we keep seeing media coverage of these terrorist "sleeper cells", with one being recently uncovered and prosecuted against (though I think in the end only one person was actually charged).

I see only two ways out of this:

1) The actual underlying problem is resolved -- the complex, multifaceted ideological and cultural clash between encroaching western culture and entrenched Islamic thought that the documentary alludes to (though doesn't elaborate on).

2) People revolt against the lessening of individual freedoms and the growth of the totalitarian police state being imposed upon them for the benefit of the people in power and their allies, either openly and suddenly (like a revolution) or subtly and over time (as in a battle of ideas).

The first solution involves a lot of work and a wholesale change in the West's attitude to the Middle East which is not likely to happen anytime soon. The latter scenario will probably involve a lot of civic unrest and/or a lot of time and work, and may potentially be quite painful. Crucially, in neither scenario do we see the kind of peaceful extinguishing out of the flame of fear as the documentary seems to suggest, which is epitomized in the final, idyllic scene complete with "happy ever after" feel-good music.

(At least that's how I see it at the moment.)

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Originally posted by {b.s.e.} You might want to stop drinking tap water, while you're thinking about all these important things. http://www.greaterthings.com/Lexicon/F/Fluoride.htm

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Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUORIDE

This just shows an ignorance of chemistry. It's like saying hydrogen monoxide is bad because its also found in carbon MONOXIDE!