By 1998 all their attempts to transform America by creating a moral revolution had failed. Faced with the indifference of the people, the Neo-Conservatives had become marginalized in both domestic and foreign policy. But with the attacks that were about to hit America the Neo-Conservatives would at last find the evil enemy they had been searching for ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. And in their reaction to the attacks the Neo-Conservatives would transform the failing Islamist movement into what would appear to be the grand revolutionist cause that Zawahiri had always dreamed of. But much of it would exist only in people’s imaginations. It would be the next phantom enemy. ibid.
Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from terrible dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest danger of all is international terrorism ... But much of this threat is a fantasy which has been exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It’s a dark illusion that has spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security services and the international media. This is a series of films about how and why that fantasy was created and who it benefits. Adam Curtis, The Power of Nightmares III: The Shadows in the Cave
The Islamists after their moment of triumph were virtually destroyed within months. While the Neo-Conservatives took power in Washington. But then the Neo-Conservatives begun to reconstruct the Islamists. They created a phantom enemy. And as this nightmare fantasy began to spread, politicians realised the new power it gave them in a deeply disillusioned age. ibid.
Now the Neo-Conservatives became all powerful … A small group began to shape America’s response to the attacks: at its heart were Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, along with the vice-president Dick Cheney, and Richard Perle was a senior adviser to the Pentagon. Last time these men had been in power was twenty years before under President Reagan. ibid.
The Neo-Conservatives distorted and exaggerated the Soviet threat. They created the image of a hidden international web of evil run from Moscow that planned to dominate the world. When in reality the Soviet Union was on its last legs, collapsing from within. ibid.
What the British and American governments had done was to disturb and exaggerate the real nature of the threat … The way the American and other governments have transformed this complex and disparate threat into a simplistic fantasy. ibid.
Dirty Bomb: and the media took the bait. They portrayed the dirty bomb as an extraordinary weapon that could kill thousands of people. ibid.
The Neo-Conservatives: America had a special destiny to overcome evil in the world. ibid.
Such was the nature of that fantasy that it began to transform the very nature of politics. ibid.
Men do not fear swords, they fear monsters. Dracula Untold 2014 starring Luke Evans & Dominic Cooper & Charles Dance & Sarah Gadon & Art Parkinson & Diarmaid Murtagh & Paul Kaye & William Houston & Noah Huntley & Ronan Vibert & Zach McGowan & Ferdinand Kingsley et al, director Gary Shore, Vlad