Can we wake up from the nightmare?

The final installment of The Power of Nightmares part 3, “The Shadows in the Cave,” tied up the complete story arc very nicely. Before watching this documentary I knew almost nothing about terrorists, Al Qaeda, the Neo-Conservatives, and sadly 9/11. I was only 11 at the time so I only saw things on the surface and usually from media pundits, which I now know cannot always be trusted. By the time I became more of an active citizen the culture of fear had already overtaken this nation leaving me to believe that terrorism and Al-Qaeda were strong forces to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, like many others I was fooled to see America as the knight in shining armor marching into Iraq and Afghanistan to save the world from evil.

The third part of this documentary opened my eyes to the fact that Al-Qaeda was an exaggerated terrorist network that was given power not from within, but from outside forces like the Neo-Conservatives, the media, and panicked citizens. I found it shocking that Bin Laden had no formal organization or name for it until the U.S. invented one for him in order to prosecute him as a leader of a terrorist organization. The lengths the U.S. government has gone to bend the truth really upset me, and more so because I was totally oblivious to all of it. The FBI manipulated evidence and witnesses to get the answers they wanted, rather than the right answers. As one scholar notes these investigative and intelligence agencies start with a conclusion built from assumptions and then fill in the blanks with junk evidence… stereotyping at its finest. As citizens we have given up so much in order to combat a phantom enemy.

Until 9/11 both the Neo-Conservatives and Al-Qaeda were down and out, but both organizations allowed one another to rise to the top again. They are almost a mutually dependent relationship, however they aren’t making any strides forward, instead they just run around in circles. 9/11 shook Americans to the core and the Neo-Conservatives took this violent imagery to show the world that they must conquer evil, placing them at the top of the totem pole of power. The documentary ends with a more promising note that citizens are becoming more skeptical of these fantasies, which I think is evident with the election of Obama and the push to get our troops out of Iraq. It should be noted that this film aired in 2004 so I think while there are some shortcomings it does thoroughly analyze the rise of these parties, and hopefully now we can see their demise in present day. I recommend this entire series and hope that while people watch they can question their own role in the construction of this nightmare.