Saddam Hussein became an important enemy for the American neo-conservatives. |
The
neo-conservatives - determined to push on with
their agenda - were convinced that there were other
evil regimes that needed to be conquered in order
to spread democracy. So they turned their focus
to Saddam Hussein, who had just invaded Kuwait.
But at the end of the first Gulf War, President
Reagan was not in power and the neo-conservatives
no longer had a leader that shared their vision.
Once Kuwait was secured, President George HW Bush
called a halt to the fighting.
The neo-conservatives turned to the religious
right and began a campaign to bring moral and religious
issues back into the center of conservative politics.
And they invented a new enemy, Bill Clinton, focusing
on the scandal surrounding him and Monica Lewinsky.
Meanwhile, the Islamists descended into a cycle
of violence and terror to persuade people to follow
them. They launched attacks against the leaders
of the Arab world - in Egypt and Algeria - to overthrow
what they believed were corrupt regimes. Then they
began using bloody terrorist attacks to shock ordinary
people into rising up.
More about Neo-conservatism
Visit our further reading section to find books
suggested by director, Adam Curtis. |
But both groups failed in their revolutions. The
neo-conservatives did not succeed in their attempt
to impeach Bill Clinton because polls showed that
Americans simply didn't care about the moral issues
involved. And the Islamists - lacking the popular
support to topple regimes across the Arab world -
returned to Afghanistan.
Defeated, the Islamists formed a new strategy.
In the late 1990s Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri,
leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and a follower
of Sayyid Qutb, paid the Taliban to allow them
to recruit and train Islamist fighters for attacks
on a new enemy - the U.S. The new jihad would be
against the source of corruption itself.
More about Islamism
Visit our further reading section to find books
suggested by director, Adam Curtis. |
Zawahiri and bin Laden began to implement their
new strategy in the late 90's. Suicide bombings
outside American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
attracted the attention of the West. And the neo-conservatives
now had a new phantom enemy.
Then bin Laden funded a plan first proposed by
an Islamic militant, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. On
September 11th, 2001 19 hijackers brought down
the World Trade Center, killed thousands of Americans
and shocked the world.
But the attacks had another dramatic effect: they
brought the neo-conservative agenda back into the
forefront.
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