PBS is premiering a series this week that looks great and is called "America at a Crossroads." In their words, the series hopes to address
"...the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world — including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America’s role overseas." http://www.pbs.org/...
Its narrated by Robert McNeal formerly of The News Hour on PBS and the first installment aired last night; it was titled "JIHAD: THE MEN AND IDEAS BEHIND AL QAEDA" (all caps on the PBS website). This first segment was great. Mr. McNeal guided the viewer into the history of those who preceded Bin Laden, as they formulated their ideas including influences from the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, a guy named Qutb, from Egypt and how Egypt tortured the Islamists, and from the Sudan and Saudi Arabia amongst others. Check your local listing for times the series will air.
Last night’s segment contained interviews from American and Arab officials and journalists along with friends and associates of Bin Laden. It acknowledged many mistakes that were made and included the perception of a CIA officer on the ground who was within 1 kilometer of Osama at Tora Bora. He said something to the effect that we needed to have more American troops on the ground rather than rely on the Northern Alliance. The CIA officer left the implication that we could have killed Bin Laden at Tora Bora and others more strongly implied, and indeed asserted, that Al Qaeda likely had been dealt a death blow with the invasion of Afghanistan, but that Al Qaeda was reinvigorated by Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The CIA officer further stated that his team confiscated an Al Qaeda radio and he heard Bin Laden apologize to his followers for the situation in which they found themselves.
Additionally, last night’s segment outlined that Bin Laden has a 25 year plan to defeat the US and it involves a war of attrition. Apparently, they’ve read a book by a guy named Powers that delineates how empires fall; basically, they bite off more than they can chew and financially bankrupt themselves—a road the Neo Cons seem to be heading us toward. I tried to find the book on the PBS site and on Amazon, but couldn’t. Maybe someone here knows about it.
With all of the information given, I had a quite visceral response to the show, as I found myself on various occasions cursing our current leaders and mourning the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. According to several sources quoted in this episode, Bush played onto Bin Laden's hands. What a fool!!
Anyway, the series is slated to run the rest of this week and if the rest of it is as good as last night’s episode, it should be very informative. Please consider watching the rest of the series and hopefully they’ll run it again soon, as you can only watch a promo of the first episode on the PBS website.
Please join me in watching this series and tell others even your Repub family and friends, as we all need to be more informed. I've found that even may father is willing to watch and learn from a PBS show even though he's a strong fundamentalist Christian and Republican.
This is my first diary and I’m a bit nervous; any constructive feedback would be greatly appreciated.