Protection from Nightmares

The Phantom Victory is the second part of the BBC documentary film series, The Power of Nightmares.  The film goes into depth about the neo-conservatives and the Islamists, incorporating vital pieces of history that I feel is necessary to learn in order to understand where we stand as a country today.

Building on from Part one of The Power of Nightmares – Baby it’s Cold Outside, Part 2 explains how the neo-conservatives utilized philosopher Leo Strauss’s theory that you need powerful myths to inspire and unite the people.  As the neo-conservatives created a contorted vision of the Soviet Union as extremely evil, they set out to defeat the ‘sinister’ empire.  The neo-conservatives received help from the head of the CIA, William Casey, who was convinced that Afghanistan was the secret to this new strategy.  Casey gave order to his agents to form an alliance with the freedom fighters, giving them massive amounts of weapons and unlimited amounts of money to triumph against the Soviet Union. 

One of the greatest myths today is that the American Government was ultimately responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union.  However, head of office of Soviet Affairs CIA Melvin Goodman said in the film that the Soviet Union collapsed like a “house of cards because it was a house of cards.”  The economy was rotten, no one believed in the Government, their system just was not strong enough to last.  But we still believed we were responsible for the triumph.  We basically became our own victims to our own myths. 

Pushing our own political agenda seemed necessary to neo-conservatives.  We saw living in a world with ‘free’ countries as a way for our country to be much more secure.  The neo-conservatives were convinced that the Soviet Union was just one evil regime that threatened us.  In order to spread democracy and free the world,  the neo-conservatives saw it vital to conquer the other regimes that we saw as a threat.  What we saw as the next most evil tyranny was Saddam Hussein.  In the 1980s Hussein was our ally.  However, when he invaded Kuwait in 1990 we now saw him as a vital component to further the transformation the world.  This is when I thought the film started to become more interesting.  Saddam is another example of the good vs. evil tactic that we used and still continue to use.  However, As we secured Kuwait, President Bush Sr saw the good vs. evil tactic as irrelevant.  Bush did not want to change the world as the Reagan administration did, he wanted to create stability in the world, reaching steady power.  This angered the neo-conservatives as they saw liberal values as a corruption.  This is when they turned to Leo Strauss's theories, turning to the myth of religion, and creating a new myth of evil, Bill Clinton.  I feel that how we turn against our own people in this country is so evil.  

Good vs. Evil?

This film is kind of sickening in a way to me.  There is so much important history that I feel is concealed so we do not learn about it.  I recommend this film to many, as it helps understand the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and how the neo-conservative agenda is still visible today.