They gave them the Stinger missiles and a Billion Dollars
Believing they had brought down the Soviet union, each imaged they could transform the World.
10 years later both faced failure.
So the New Right found another fanatasy enemy
Its terrorism, political terrorism
Whilst the extreme Islamists resorted to Violence and Terror.
Out of all this came todays climate of deception and fear.
Did anyone see the first of the three parts to this fascination piece of TV on BBC2 on Wednesday? It's quite heavy stuff, and goes back many years, but the main idea is that threats are created for political gain.
The CIA in the late 70's and into the 80's created the ideology that The Soviet Union had a global network and was capable and keen to take over the World. They were asked to publish their findings, but had to admit that there was nothing to publish as it basically didn't exist. Obviously they didn't tell the public this. As the US Government upped the pressure on Russia to protect it's own people and land, Russia had to up it's own security and stealth to counter the risk, almost becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy in the process.
The next programme is basically going to say how after helping in Afghanistan and Russia basically crumbling internally, the US had no enemies and was therefore lacking. It's people had been told over the years how it was the 'Worlds Police' and the country thrived on military victories, to which they could apply as much political spin as they liked.
When the CIA didn't have an enemy they were busy training the sanctioned torturerers of the World in the best tactics of extracting information. One favourite was to whip prisoners until they were raw, smother them in animal fat, and then turn dogs that were trained to attack people onto them. this was filmed and exerts were shown on the first part of thsi programme. So why should we doubt for 1 second that they mistreat the prisoners at Guantanimo Bay?
They will be looking at Al-Quaeda and the global terror network, pointing out that in all liklihood it really doesnt exist. The massive fear of a dirty bomb is hype, and would cause minor damage and little or no fatalities - the talked about long-term health risks apparantly simply do not exist.
If we didn't have this threat though, this 'danger' to pull the country together and give us a common enemy the economy would suffer and the health of the nation too. The UK lost it's way as the threat of the IRA diminished, and a new enemy was needed.
Look at the amount of terror suspects lifted in the UK and then released. Sure, they may have insufficient evidence and the fact these people know they are now being watched may well be enough to stop them in their tracks, but could it also be to boost our morales and encourage us that things are being done? Lets see how many are lifted on the road to the elections eh.
Fascinating stuff, very very controversial and to be honest, no way of proving either way. What I will say though is that I wouldn't put it past the governments of the US, or sadly the UK.
Thoughts?
