Adam Curtis - Bitter Lake

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"Events come and go like waves of a fever, leaving us confused and uncertain. Those in power tell stories to help us make sense of the complexity of reality, but those stories are increasingly unconvincing and hollow. This is a film about why those stories have stopped making sense, and how that led us in the West to become a dangerous and destructive force in the world. It is told through the prism of a country at the center of the world: Afghanistan." - Adam Curtis

http://spikethenews.blogspot.com/2015/02/adam-curtis-bitter-lake.html

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Please feel free to contact me if necessary

Spike1138,
Minister of Information,
The League Against NATO Aggression

Świat w którym żyjemy staje się coraz bardziej bezsensowny.

Wydarzenia przychodzą i odchodzą jak fale gorączki,

pozostawiając nas zdezorientowanych i pogrążonych w niepewności.

Ci u władzy, prowadzą narracje które mają nam pomóc nadać sens

złożoności rzeczywistości.

Ale te narracje stają się coraz mniej
przekonywujące i coraz płytsze.

# Excuse me, I'm lost...
(Przepraszam, zgubiłam się) #

Jest to film o tym dla czego te narracje przestały mieć sens.

I jak doprowadziło to nas na Zachodzie, do bycia niebezpieczną i destrukcyjną siłą

wobec świata.

Opowiada to przez pryzmat kraju

w samym centrum świata.
Afganistan.

#Kim jesteś? #

MUZYKA: Come Down To Us - Burial

# Jesteśmy tu

# Jestem zmęczona

# Break it down

# Break it down, to my eyes

# Baby, come on, come on

# And, girl, I know

# I know you want it

# I'm trusting you, I'm going

# Going

# Tonight, do you feel alive?

# Tonight, do you feel alive?

# Come down to us

# Come down

# Down... #

W 1946, amerykańscy inżynierowie, wraz
z żonami i rodzinami,

zaczęli lądować na zakurzonym
lądowisku w Helmand

w południowym Afganistanie.

Pracowali dla największej
firmy budowlanej na świecie

- nazywającej się Morrison
Knudsen -

i zostali tam sprowadzeni przez króla Afganistanu

by budować gigantyczny zaplanowany nowy świat -

kompleks tam, kanałów, dróg a nawet nowe modelowe miasto

Celem króla było ujarzmienie potężnej rzeki Helmand

i przemiana jego kraju w nowoczesne społeczeństwo -
dokładnie jak na Zachodzie.

ARCHIWUM: "Azjatyckie królestwo Afganistanu jest zlokalizowane

około 10.000 mil od któregokolwiek z wybrzeży Stanów Zjednoczonych.

Niemal dokładnie po przeciwnej
stronie ziemi, na zachód od Chin,

poza Himalajami.

'pozbawiony linii brzegowej, graniczy z Związkiem Sowieckim od północy,

na wschodzie z Pakistanem a na zachodzie z Iranem."

Król nazywa się Zahir Shah, i często
przybywał żeby wizytować projekt.

Afganistan był głęboko konserwatywnym
krajem, a on był zdeterminowany

aby go zmodernizować.

To co król próbował stworzyć
w Helmand było kopią tego

co prezydent Roosevelt stworzył w
Ameryce w latach 30 dwudziestego wieku.

A firma którą wynajął
- Morrison Knudsen -

pracowała wtedy na zlecenie Roosevelta,

budując nowy świat tam
i elektrowni w całej Ameryce.

Teraz mieli zrobić to
samo dla Afganistanu.

Inżynierowi i ich rodziny
żyli w kompleksie domów

wokół wiejskiej posiadłości króla w Helmand.

Miejsce to stało się znane jako Mała Ameryka.

NIEWYRAŹNE GŁOSY

Masz wszystko czego potrzebujesz?

Sporo rzeczy tu leży.
Jest tu ciało martwego powstańca.

Mężczyzna zaraz pod 20stce.

Chodź, idziemy. Idziemy.

DIALOG W ICH WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

KRZYCZĄ JEDNOCZEŚNIE

OK, pójdę za tobą. Ruszaj.

OK.

Dzień dobry.

Wstańcie.

Jak się macie?
KOBIETY: Dobrze, dziękuję.

Jesteście bardzo dobre.

Jak wasze rodziny?

Czego potrzeba żeby powstrzymać walki?

TŁUMACZ POWTARZA

ODPOWIADA WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

KOMÓRKA ODTWARZA PIOSENKĘ JAKO DZWONEK

DZWONEK USTAJE

NIEWYRAŹNE GŁOSY MIESZAJĄ SIĘ Z MUZYKĄ

Jak długo jesteś z Talibami,
jeśli mogę zapytać?

Chris, co się dzieje?

Dobra, wow!!

ŚMIECH

Wow. Wyglądasz strasznie na zbliżeniu.

Z odległości też trochę strasznie!

Taa, to prawda.

Co jest?? Jak się czujesz?

Czuję się teraz nieźle.

To był dość ekscytujący dzień.

Ta, zaliczamy tu zabicia.

Dzisiaj, dla celów dokumentacji,

dziś było dniem w którym poszliśmy na wskroś rozkazom
i mimo wszystko strzelaliśmy.

Zabiliśmy jakoś sporo ludzi.

24 niezatwierdzone strzały.

24 niezatwierdzone wysoce wybuchowe
pociski z moździerza.

To około 40,000 funtów śmierci, prosto.

Yo. Yo.

Jebać to, wygląda tu prawie jak na ravie.

Wszystko co mam do powiedzenia... W zasadzie, mam coś do powiedzenia.

Posłuchajmy.

Kocham jebany korpus piechoty morskiej.
ŚMIECH

- Wiem że wielu z was...
- Mamy cie na kamerze jak to mówisz!

Wiem, wiem, że wielu z was nie,
ale to co zrobiliśmy dzisiaj...

Ta, potrzebujemy urodzonych morderów, takich jak ty.

Och, wszyscy jesteśmy urodzonymi mordercami.

NIEWYRAŹNE GŁOSY

Pod koniec drugiej wojny światowej,
prezydent Roosevelt wyruszył do

Wielkiego Jeziora Gorzkiego, mieszczącego się w połowie Kanału Sueskiego.

W tym samym czasie, wysłał kolejny
okręt amerykańskiej marynarki

by podjąć króla Arabii Saudyjskiej,
króla Abdulaziza.

Spotkanie króla i prezydenta miało mieć potężne - i katastroficzne -

konsekwencje tak dla Zachodu, jak i w dziwny sposób, dla Afganistanu.

Roosevelt umierał, ale przez ostatnie 13 lat

używał swojej władzy na epicką skalę, by zmieniać świat.

Po krachu Wall Street i okropnym kryzysie który po nim nastąpił.

Roosevelt chwycił za ster.

Przyjął ustawy które rozbijały banki

tak by nigdy więcej nie wymknęły się z pod kontroli.

I odbudowywał Amerykę serią gigantycznych tam

które dały milionom energię elektryczną i zatrudnienie.

A także zaplanował i poprowadził wojnę światową przeciw Niemcom i Japonii.

Teraz, kiedy Roosevelt siedział oczekując Abdulaziza,

nikt nie mógł sobie wyobrażać
konsekwencji tego spotkania.

Albowiem miało ono uwolnić siły
które w przyszłości

podważyły wszystko na co pracował Roosevelt -

jego wiarę że politycy powinni
wykorzystywać swoją władzę by

planowo zmieniać świat.

Ale Roosevelt wiedział że aby utrzymać tą władzę, Ameryka potrzebuje ropy.

Chciał ukuć z królem alians aby być pewnym

że zasobne pola roponośne Saudów pozostaną pod Amerykańską kontrolą.

W swojej rozmowie, tych dwóch mężczyzn wyłożyło podstawy pod przymierze

które trwa po dziś dzień.

Ameryka miała dostać swoją ropę -
a w zamian, Arabia Saudyjska

bogactwo i bezpieczeństwo zapewnione przez Amerykę.

Ale król był doskonale świadom niebezpieczeństw związanych z otwarciem swojego kraju

na wpływy nowoczesnego Zachodu.

Więc w negocjacjach które nastąpiły wysunął warunek.

Powiedział; weźmiemy waszą technologię i wasze pieniądze -

ale musicie zostawić w spokoju naszą wiarę.

Wiara Saudów nazywała się Wahabizm.

Była radykalną, agresywną i ekstremalnie purytańską formą Islamu,

a jej wyznawcy pośród Beduińskich plemion nienawidzili współczesnego świata.

Wahabizm był częścią szerszego ruchu w Islamie

który zrodził się w reakcji na europejskie imperia.

Kolejnym przykładem był ruch Deobandi w Indiach.

Wszyscy wierzyli że współczesny imperializm korumpuje

prawdziwą istotę Islamu i chcieli wrócić do świata

opartego na oryginalnych nauczaniach islamskich tekstów.

Abdulaziz ujarzmi tą siłę aby przejąć władzę w latach 1920tych.

Ale uwolnił coś co nie chciało się zatrzymać.

Whabici chcieli kontynuować i stworzyć kalifat

poprzez cały Arabski świat -

aby ich powstrzymać, w 1929,
Abdulaziz rozstrzelał ich z karabinów maszynowych.

Bezlitości zabił wojowników którzy uczynili go królem.

Ale ich wiara - pełna przemocy, pozbawiona tolerancji, ale ponad wszystko,

uwsteczniona wersja islamu -

pozostała w samym sercu społeczeństwa Arabii Saudyjskiej.

A umowa zawarta nad wodach Wielkiego Jeziora Gorzkiego

oznaczała że Ameryka dostanie swoją ropę

ale będzie też strzegła Wahabizmu -

siły, która miała swoje własne globalne ambicje.

Ambicje bardzo różne od Amerykańskich.

GRA NA HARFIE

Kim jest typ w turbanie na tronie?

Masz na myśli Khasi.

To Randy Lal.

Kto?

Randy Lal, khasi Kalabaru.

Och!

Skąd wiesz że nim jest?

- Skąd wiem ze jest czym?
- Randym.

- To jego imię!
- Och!

Wygląda bardzo przystojnie, nieprawdaż?

Tak, zaledwie najbogatszy i najpotężniejszy radża w północnych Indiach,

tylko tyle.

- Uśmiecha się do nas.
- Odwzajemnij uśmiech.

Cooee! (australijskie zawołanie)

Nie musisz od razu szaleć.

Ojcze, kim sa ci ludzie?

To, światło mojej ciemności,
Sir Sidney Rough Diamond, (Sir Sidney Twardy Diament)

Brytyjski gubernator, którego łaskawych rządów

i światłego kierownictwa, dobrze było by nie uświadczyć.

Do połowy lat 1950tych,
amerykańscy inżynierowie zbudowali

potężne tamy które miały stworzyć to co nazwano

"nową cudowną krainą roślinności i prądu" w Helmand.

Ale projekt napotkał problemy

i zaczynał tracić swoją niewinność.

Wraz ze swoim ukończeniem, ogromne tamy miały nieprzewidziany efekt.

Podniosły poziom wód gruntowych

i zaczęły wyprowadzać na powierzchnie sole.

A jedną z roślin które kwitły w tych nowych glebach były maki.

Niektórzy prowadzący projekty stwierdzili że należy je zatrzymać.

Ale amerykański rząd wkroczył nalegając aby je kontynuować

ponieważ w tej chwili tamy stały się kluczową częścią

walki ze Związkiem Radzieckim.

Wszystkie strony w Zimnej Wojnie zaczęły konkurować aby zaoferować Afganistanowi

większe i lepsze wzory na modernizację kraju.

Afgańscy politycy wykorzystywali to bezlitośnie.

Premier, Mohammed Daoud,
spędzał cały swój czas podróżując po świecie

rozgrywając kolejne kraje - Rosję, Amerykę i Chiny -

przeciw sobie na wzajem.

Daoud chciał użyć modernizacji jako sposobu na skonsolidowanie swojej władzy.

Afganistan był podzielonym krajem.

Władza była podzielona pomiędzy grupy etniczne i plemiona.

Daoud był Pasztunem i widział w jaki sposób projekt tam w Helmand

może zostać wykorzystany do mocniejszego pchnięcia kraju w pasztuńskie ręce.

Przekonał Amerykanów żeby jeszcze bardziej powiększych projekt,

aby obrócić go w potężne dzieło inżynierii społecznej.

Tysiące pasztuńskich nomadów,

którzy spędzali życie wędrując poprzez tereny graniczne z Pakistanem,

miało zostać osiedlonych na nowych ziemiach uprawnych, stworzonych przez tamy.

Daoud przedstawiał to jako po prostu kolejny niewinny element modernizacji -

a amerykanie beztrosko na niego przystali.

Z czego nie zdawali sobie sprawy to że nieświadomie byli wciągani

w afgańską politykę sił.

Daoud nie tylko powiększał pasztuńską władzę, ale też

zasiał nasiona zajadłych sporów

odnośnie podziału i własności ziemi w Helmand.

SZYBKA MUZYKA TANECZNA

TRĄBKA GRA AFGAŃSKĄ MUZYKĘ LUDOWĄ

TŁUM KLASZCZE W RYTM

gRA TRADYCYJNA MUZYKA

CHŁOPCY NAWOŁUJĄ SIĘ W SWOIM JĘZYKU

STRZAŁY

FALA WYSTRZAŁÓW

KRZYKI

KLAKSON

MĘŻCZYZNA KRZYCZY W SWOIM JĘZYKU

SYRENA ALARMOWA

MĘŻCZYŹNI ROZMAWIAJĄ PO CICHU

RYK SYRENY OKRĘTOWEJ

WIELBŁĄD CHRZĄKA

Brytyjska Rada Handlu,

w broszurze rozdawanej odwiedzającym brytyjskim biznesmenom,

stara się być pomocna, ale tak mówi o arabskim czasie,

a to tylko jeden z przykładów.

"Zachód brany jest za zero, kiedy zegarki nastawiane są na 12.

"Spotkanie biznesowe, wyznaczone, przykładowo, na drugą po południu

będzie oznaczało więc dwie godziny po zachodzie słońca

a piąta rano, siedem godzin przed zachodem słońca.

Ważne jest aby pamiętać że zachód słońca należy postrzegać

jako północ. Czas wschodu jest nieistotny."

Nie wiem jak dla was, ale wiem że czas słoneczny jest około sześć godzin, hm...

plus pięć, innymi słowy jest któraś godzina 11, wieczorem lub rano.

- Ale która?
- No cóż jest 11.

Ale to musi mieć jakieś odniesienie do pory dnia.

- Tak.
- Jak pan, jako biznesmen,

umawia spotkania?

Um... Normalnie robię to w oparciu o swój zegarek.

Osobiście pytam czy stosują czas arabski,

czas słoneczny czy czas GMT plus trzy.
Zazwyczaj preferują jeden z dwóch wcześniejszych.

Proszę o podanie czasu w GMT plus trzy.

Teraz, czas słoneczny jest sześć godzin do tyłu, około.

Sześć godzin po tym?

Sześć godzin, plus pięć, plus minus godzina,

Czy wiesz którą teraz mamy godzinę?

Nie bardzo!

W 1964, król Faisal został nowym władcą Arabii Saudyjskiej.

Faisal zamierzał zmodernizować kraj.

Stworzył wzorowane na zachodzie biurokrację, oraz system socjalny.

Po raz pierwszy zezwolił nawet na telewizję.

Ale stał przed dwoma zagrożeniami.

Źródłem pierwszego byli przywódcy religijni wewnątrz Arabii Saudyjskiej.

Byli Wahabitami którzy dali władzę jego rodzinie

i legitymizowali jego władzę.

Nie ufali żadnej koncepcji modernizacji saudyjskiego społeczeństwa.

Faisal mierzył się również z niebezpieczną sytuacją za granicą,

ze strony komunizmu, który rozprzestrzeniał się poprzez arabski świat.

Jego rozwiązanie było proste.

Faisal zdecydował się wykorzystać religijnych przywódców i ich konserwatywne wierzenia

jako siłę mającą odeprzeć międzynarodowe zagrożenie komunizmu.

Ale wiedział też że to odwróci także ich uwagę

od jego polityki wewnętrznej.

Faisal użył coraz większych wpływów z ropy

by założyć setki szkół i instytutów w całym islamskim świecie -

niektóre nawet tak daleko jak w Pakistanie.

Ich zadaniem było rozprzestrzenianie wahabickich idei i pomoc w przemianie islamu w

zunifikowaną międzynarodową siłę, dostatecznie silną by zmierzyć się z komunizmem.

To co robił Faisal polegało na wzięciu niebezpiecznego

i niestabilnego fanatyzmu będącego sercem saudyjskiego społeczeństwa

i skierowaniu go na zewnątrz, poza granice.

Był to bezwzględny sposób na stabilizację w jego własnym kraju.

Ameryka dała na to milczące przyzwolenie

ponieważ był to element globalnej walki z komunizmem.

Ale w 1966, Faisal dał Ameryce

zobaczyć przebłysk tego jak niekontrolowalnym sojusznikiem mogła byś Arabia Saudyjska.

Wybrał się do Nowego Jorku

i publicznie zaatakował amerykańskie poparcie dla Izraela.

Wywołało to skandal.

MÓWI PO ARABSKU

Powody są takie że niestety,

Żydzi na całym świecie popierają Izrael.

Zapewniają wsparcie Izraelowi i, w naszej obecnej sytuacji,

uważamy tych którzy wspierają naszego wroga

jako naszych własnych wrogów.

MÓWI PO ARABSKU

Chciał bym wynająć ksero.

- OK.
- Na trzy miesiące.

W porządku.

- Być może na sześć miesięcy.
- Tak, czemu by nie?

Um...

Jeśli chcesz na rok, jedno za...

To czego od ciebie potrzebuje to jakie są warunki i ile będzie to kosztować.

MĘŻCZYZNA MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Ho, ho, ho, ho.

Czy macie zapas... tego tonera i wywoływacza?

Ta, chcemy żebyście wy je konserwowali i serwisowali. OK?

MĘŻCZYŹNI ROZMAWIAJĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Sir, będziemy kupować papier i kolor od nich, tak będzie OK?

Ta. Czy możecie podać mi cenę za trzy miesiące,

być może sześć miesięcy?

Umowa musi trwać trzy miesiące.

OK.

ROZMAWIAJĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

500 dolarów za miesiąc.

- 500 dolarów za miesiąc.
- Za miesiąc?

- To bardzo drogo.
- To jest bardzo drogie.

Co możesz mieć, jeśli sprowadzisz je tutaj,

możesz ustawić je tutaj, ja będę dla was kopiował.

Nie, nie, chcemy zabrać kopiarki.

MUZYKA: The Bewlay Brothers
- David Bowie

# And so the story goes,
they wore the clothes

# They said the things
to make it seem improbable

# Whale of a lie
like they hope it was

# And the good men tomorrow
had their feet in the wallow

# And their heads of brawn
were nicer shorn

# And how they bought their positions
with saccharin and trust

# And the world was asleep
to our latent fuss

# Sighings swirl through the streets
like the crust of the sun

# The Bewlay Brothers

# In our wings that bark

# Flashing teeth of brass

# Standing tall in the dark

# Oh, and we were gone... #

Wasza Ekscelencjo, wasza obecność wzbogaca mój skromny dom.

Niech wspaniołomyślność boga Shivu niesie błogosławieństwo dla twego domu.

I dla twego.

A jego mądrość niesie sukces wszystkim twoim przedsięwzięciom.

I twoim.

I niech jego blask rozpali twoje życie.

I ciebie też.

- Czy kiedykolwiek...
- Bardzo mnie to gniewa.

Czy kiedykolwiek czuje pan frustrację z powodu, mam na myśli,

mówił pan o korupcji i z całą pewnością w przeszłości

przedstawiał bardzo mocne poglądy przeciw urzędnikom, na przykład,

którzy są skorumpowani, ale wielu z nich nie opuściło swoich miejsc pracy,

nie podporządkowali się pańskim rozkazom.

Nie, wszyscy opuścili swoje posady.

Z pewnością.

W ostatnich kilku dniach, 28 którzy zostali zwolnieni,

19, według naszych informacji 19 z nich wciąż zajmuje swoje stanowiska.

Nie, to nie prawda.
Wszyscy odeszli.

Wszyscy odeszli.

- OK.
- Zdecydowanie. Zdecydowanie.

Jest pan więc pewien że pańska władza jest rozbudowywana

w zakresie możliwości stanowienia,

pewności że podporządkowuje się pańskim rozkazom.

Ja... Ja buduję nową administrację dla Afganistanu.

Pracuję nad czystą, wydajną administracją.

Do tyłu! Cofnąć się! Cofnąć się, kurwa!

Spierdalać z drogi.
Wypierdalajcie!

MUZYKA POWRACA: The Bewlay Brothers
- David Bowie

# I was stone, he was wax

# So he could scream and still relax,
unbelievable

# And we frightened
the small children away

# And our talk was old
and dust would flow through our veins

# And though it was midnight
back at the kitchen door

# Like the grim face
on the cathedral floor

# The solid book we wrote
cannot be found today

# And it was stalking time for
the moon boys, the Bewlay Brothers

# With our backs on the arch

# And the Devil may be here

# But he can't sing about that

# Oh, and we were gone

# Real cool traders

# We were so turned on... #

MUZYKA ZNIEKSZTAŁCA SIĘ, CICHNIE

# You thought we were fakers... #

PIES SZCZEKA

Niedawno, przyjaciel programu
"Blue Peter", Angela Mulliner,

zaprosila mnie aby pomóc w przygotowaniu
psów o bardzo kudłatej sierści,

parę chartów afgańskich

To powinno być dobre miejsce

'Potrzeba dużo przestrzeni
aby wyczesać psy tej wielkości,

'więc udaliśmy się do parku.

'Ich imiona to Kingsley i Cleo
i powiedziałam że ja zajmę się Cleo.'

Jak często powinno się to robić?

- Bardzo często.
- O, rany.

Nie siadaj, Cleo,
Dobra dziewczynka.

'Angela i ja chcemy aby psy
wyglądały jak najlepiej

'ponieważ zabieramy je
na specjalne wydarzenie.

'Udajemy się wszyscy na aleję The Mall

'i musimy tam być
przed godziną 12.'

- Chodźcie, pieski.
- Chodź.

'Byłyśmy bardzo dumne z Kingsley'a i
Cleo ponieważ zostały zaproszone

'aby dołączyć do warty honorowej.'

'Charty afgańskie zostały wybrane
aby pozdrowić ich króla, ponieważ

'po raz pierwszy, Król
Afganistanu przybywa do Londynu.'

ORKIESTRA GRA MARSZA

'Około 20 członków
Południowego Stowarzyszenia Chartów Afgańskich

'ustawiło swoje psy
wzdłuż trasy

'i były afgańczyki
wszystkich kolorów i rozmiarów.'

'A kiedy Królowa wskazała na nas,

'Król Afganistanu
sprawiał wrażenie zachwyconego widząc nas.

RADOŚĆ

'Po raz pierwszy w ich życiach,

'Brytyjskie charty afgańskie oglądały
ludzi ze swojego kraju

'ponieważ w karetach
jadących za Królową,

'było więcej ludzi z
Dworu Królewskiego Afganistanu.'

ADAM CURTIS: Ale uporządkowany świat,
w którym rządzą królowie i królowe

a psy zachowują się posłusznie,
miał się już zawalić.

W 1971, Król Afganistanu

odbył swoją pierwszą
wizytę panstwową do Brytanii

ale była to równiej jego ostatnia,

ponieważ jego ambitny
Premier, Mohammed Daoud,

już przeciwko niemu spiskował.

I w 1973,
Daoud przejął władzę w wyniku zamachu stanu.

Ogłosił Afganistan republiką,
i wysłał Króla na wygnanie.

PSY SZCZEKAJĄ

Dwa miesiące później,
Egipt zaatakował Izrael

i wojna na Bliskim Wschodzie się rozpoczęła.

Na początku, wyglądało
jakby Izrael był pokonany.

Ale rząd Amerykański przybył
z pomocą, armią powietrzną

na masową skalę by zapobiec
przed przytłoczeniem Izraelitów.

Izraelici kontratakowali
i Arabowie ponieśli klęskę.

Ale wtedy Arabia Saudyjska
przyszła na ratunek

ponieważ Król Faisal zdał sobie sprawę

że jego kraj miał broń
która mogłaby powstrzymać Izrael.

W nocy, Faisal podwyższył
cenę ropy pięciokrotnie

i zagroził całkowitym embargo

o ile Ameryka nie
zmusi Izrael do odwrotu.

To zadziałało. Uzgodniono zawieszenie ognia.

I wszyscy zdali sobie sprawę
że równowaga sił na świecie

nagle się zmieniła.

Czego chcemy to całkowite
wycofanie sił Izraelskich

z okupowanych Arabskich terytoriów

a wtedy będziecie mieli ropę

na tym samym poziomie co we wrześniu '73.

Czy to rządanie jest ostateczne i sztywne czy
jest to tylko pozycja do negocjacji?

Zdecydowanie. Zdecydowanie.

Nie oddamy ani cala
tych ziemi.

Czy ten nowy potężny wzrost
w cenie ropy

oznacza zmianę w
światowej równowadze sił

pomiędzy rozwijającymi się państwami
jak wy, producenci,

i nami, rozwiniętymi
uprzemysłowionymi krajami?

Tak, oznacza.

I jak myślisz co
z tego powstanie?

Coż, nowy rodzaj stosunków.

Musicie dostosować się do
nowych okoliczności

i myślę że musicie usiąść
i poważnie z porozmawiać z nami

o tej nowej erze.

Kiedy Arabia Saudyjska
podwyższyła cenę ropy,

zrobiła to by zmienić polityczną
równowagę sił na świecie.

Ale to również miało
inny, nieoczekiwany efekt

ponieważ umożliwiło to ludziom którzy prowadzili
banki i system finansowy

w Ameryce i Brytanii rozpoczęcie procesu
oderwania od politycznej kontroli.

Miliardy dolarów popłynęły
z Zachodu do Arabii Saudyjskiej -

z którymi w większości Saudowie
nie wiedzieli co zrobić.

Więc przekazali je do
Zachodnich banków na inwestycje.

Banki dokonały wtedy kluczowej
decyzji - zatrzymały wiele

z tych dolarów z dala od
kontroli Amerykańskiego rządu

i stały się one ogromnym zasobem
bogactwa, znanym jako petro-dolary,

które może być pożyczane i obracane
gdziekolwiek na świecie

bez politycznej kontroli.

W trakcie gdy zachodni politycy usiłowali
poradzić sobie z ekonomią

i chaosem społecznym który został
wywołany przez rosnącą cenę ropy,

ich bankierzy budowali
nowy system finansowy

oparty na obrocie
Saudyjskich miliardów.

I banki zaczęły stawać się
ponownie bogate i wpływowe.

ODLEGŁE STŁUMIONE KRZYKI

Czy on wie gdzie są Talibowie?

Największe schronienie Talibów...
Taliban...

ROZMAWIAJĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

- Marjah?
- Marjah.

Powiedział Talibowie są w Marjah.

ŚMIECH: Uh-huh, Marjah. Marjah.

ROZMAWIAJĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Oni używają jego części jako...
MĘŻCZYZNA MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

- Assalamu alaikum.
- Assalamu alaikum.

Jasne. Czy jesteśmy w Kushal Kalay
właśnie teraz?

Czy to Kushal Kalay? Jaka jest
nazwa tej wioski?

MĘŻCZYZNA TŁUMACZY

To krańce Kushal Kalay.

Czy Talibowie już poszli czy
wciąż są w Kushal Kalay?

TŁUMACZY

OK. Gdzie... Sh, sh, sh.

Gdzie on widział Talibów? Gdzie?

ROZMAWIAJĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Jasne, Jasne.

MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Jak daleko?

MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Tutaj, Talibowie?

MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Tam, tam!
Dobra, sir - sir!

MÓWIĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

Ten człowiek zidentyfikował tych tutaj
i mówi że to Talibowie.

MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU
Tak. Dwóch ludzi.

MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU
Tak, tam.

Talibów, tak?

MÓWI WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

DZIECI KRZYCZĄ

MÓWIĄ WE WŁASNYM JĘZYKU

WIATR WIEJE

Gdy zachodnie kraje zapadły się
ekonomicznie w latach 70tych,

studenci z Europy i Ameryki
uciekli z chaosu.

Przybyli do Afganistanu
jak krainy snów.

Inny, niewinny świat,

wolny od korupcji polityków
i pieniędzy z Zachodu.

MĘŻCZYZNA: Wtem widzisz Afgańczyków
wyłaniających się z piasku,

ledwie rzucają spojrzenie,
i odchodzą w przeszłość.

Tęsknisz za pytaniem, "Dokąd
zmierzasz? Skąd przychodzisz?"

Ale on tylko znika w mroku,

zajęty swoimi codziennymi sprawami.

Podróżnik to ktoś

kto porusza się po kraju

dzięki własnej przedsiębiorczości,

z pewną wewnętrzną potrzebą
nauki,

aby znaleźć coś więcej
niż powierzchowność.

Dla mnie, Afgańskość była pewną
figurą z drzeworytu

w księdze o Indiach.

Rzeczywistość Afganistanu
była dużo ponad to,

ich siła charakteru
która przemawia przez

ich najprostsze działanie.

To jest długa kurtka. Dla mężczyzn.

Od pokoleń.
Przechodzi z matki na córkę.

Opos.

To jest antylopa.

Spójrz na ten płaszcz.

But Afghan students still believed
in the idea of revolution.

Back in the 1960s, many students
from Kabul University had been sent

to universities in America.

It had been part of the
modernisation project.

And they brought back with them
radical ideas

from the American student left.

Back in Kabul,

those ideas then got mixed up
with other left-wing theories

that the Afghan students found in
badly-translated Russian books

about Marxism.

And in 1978 they decided
to have a revolution.

One of the leaders was
Hafizullah Amin,

and after the revolution
he ordered a film to be made

about the role he had played.

Amin also starred in the film,
playing himself.

It shows policemen coming to Amin's
house to arrest him.

He tries to hide some secret papers.

But the policemen take him to jail,
leaving his wife and daughter.

Amin is then shown directing the
revolution from his prison cell.

And then riding on a tank
to the president's palace.

REPORTER: Tanks loyal to young
communist army officers

now guard the palace
where President Daoud ruled.

Inside, he and his family,
including his young grandchildren,

are shot dead when his palace guard
lost their courageous battle

to defend him.

Men from the different tribes
who live in this backward country

swarm all over tanks
knocked out in the battle.

They seem pleased to see the end
of the old, feudal regime.

ADAM CURTIS: The revolutionaries
gave a press conference.

Amin, it was announced,
would become Foreign Minister.

And the president of the
revolutionary council

was another ex-student -
Mohammed Taraki.

Our relationship with all the
countries, including Soviet Union,

and all our neighbours and
throughout the world will be peace,

will depend on the amount of their
support to our government

in political, economical field.

Does this mean, Mr President,

that you will be following a
strict policy of non-alignment?

This is quite correct.

The aim of the revolution was
to create a new Afghanistan,

and parades were held in Kabul
to celebrate the radical vision.

One of the main aims was to
redistribute land fairly,

to get rid of a feudal system
of landowners and peasants.

Every farmer was to be allowed
to own their own land.

And young revolutionaries from Kabul

were filmed going out
into the countryside

to measure out the new plots,

followed by the grateful farmers
kissing their new land certificates.

But in reality, the land reforms
set the seeds for a bitter conflict

in Helmand. It made the divisions

that had begun with President Daoud's
reforms in the 1960s much worse.

As the land was parcelled out,

families accused each other
of stealing the best bits.

And all sorts of hatreds
and rivalries

were born in Afghan rural society,

rivalries that would set village
against village, tribe against tribe.

And in Kabul, the revolutionaries
started to hate each other, too.

Hafizullah Amin decided
that he should be in charge,

and he arranged for his rival,
Taraki, to be killed.

Taraki was smothered with a cushion.

Amin ordered that anyone
who opposed the reforms

should be thrown in jail or killed.

In Helmand, 100 political prisoners
were taken up in a plane

and thrown into the giant lake
created by the American dam.

The Soviet leaders in Moscow became
terrified that Afghanistan

was falling apart and
they decided to intervene.

They rang Amin to tell him that
they were sending Russian troops

to help his revolution.

And at the end of 1979, the troops
began to arrive at Kabul Airport.

What the Russians didn't tell Amin

was that the troops were also
coming to kill him.

The Russians put a sniper
on one of the main roads in Kabul.

But Amin's convoy drove too fast
and the sniper missed.

GUNSHOT

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

They tried again.

This time they put poison
in Amin's can of Pepsi

in the presidential palace.

But his nephew drank it instead...

and died.

Amin gave a banquet
in a palace outside Kabul.

The Soviets smuggled in a chef
who poisoned the food.

This time it worked -

all the guests, and Amin, fell
on the floor, writhing in agony.

But the Afghan servants
rang for help

and two Russian doctors turned up
who knew nothing of the plot.

They pumped Amin's stomach
and he revived.

So the Russian troops attacked
the palace, threw a grenade at Amin,

and shot him.

SHOUTING IN OWN LANGUAGE

INDISTINCT VOICES ON RADIO

INDISTINCT VOICES ON RADIO

Couldn't be happier. And I'm
particularly happy today.

Why?

We had a very good election
last night

and the people came out
in huge numbers to vote.

And voted a new president,
which is the people's choice,

and that's democracy in action.

And I'm very proud of the people
of the United States.

Oh, I was thrilled.

I think the stock market will go up,
everyone will be happy,

the economy is going to level off,

our international relations
will become much more stable.

I've worked very, very hard on the
election in some of the phone banks

and all of my friends did.
Thrilled to pieces about it.

I, uh, always have voted,
uh, Democrat.

So, you know, times have changed
now so, I'm not a baby any more

so I had to make a change
and I made a change.

And so the right man won.

President Reagan simplified
everything for America.

For ten years, the country had been
battered and torn apart

by waves of economic
and social chaos.

Reagan set out to give the country
a new sense of purpose.

He took all the problems,
even the most complex,

and turned them into
reassuring moral fables.

And abroad, the world
he depicted was one where,

although good might struggle
with evil for a while,

in the end, goodness and innocence
would triumph.

We have it in our power

to begin the world over again.

APPLAUSE

It was a vision of the world
that, over the next 20 years,

would rise up to possess all of us
in the West, both left and right.

Conflicts that, in the past, would
have been seen as political struggles

were redefined. They became instead
battles against dark, demonic forces

that threatened innocent people.

And the role of we,
the good people of the West,

was to intervene to save
those innocents.

One of the places this dream began
was Afghanistan.

America was already
helping the rebels

who were fighting the Russians, but
Reagan increased the aid massively

and made it the symbol
of his new vision.

He even dedicated the space shuttle
to the Afghan freedom fighters.

Just as the Columbia we think
represents man's finest aspirations

in the field of science
and technology,

so, too, does the struggle of the
Afghan people represent man's

highest aspirations for freedom.

Accordingly, I am dedicating,
on behalf of the American people,

the March 22nd launch of the Columbia

to the people of Afghanistan.

But right from the beginning
there was a dangerous,

destructive force at the very
heart of this project.

This was because Reagan's partner
in the battle to bring freedom

to Afghanistan was Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi intelligence agencies
worked with the CIA to ship arms

and money to the Afghan rebels.

On the surface, the Saudis did this
because a fellow Muslim country

had been invaded by communists.

But it was also part of their attempt
to export the dangerous

fundamentalism at the heart
of their own society.

In 1979, a group of Saudi radicals

had taken over the Grand Mosque in
Mecca.

For two weeks, the authorities
had fought running battles

with the insurgents.

They discovered that a number
of the attackers had been taught

by the most senior religious leader
in the country.

It made the ruling family
realise just how fragile

their grip on power was.

So as well as sending
the money and the weapons,

they encouraged young radicals
to go and fight in Afghanistan.

One of them was a young
Osama bin Laden.

The aim was to divert their anger.

But it meant that with the arms
would also come the pessimistic

and intolerant version
of Islam - Wahhabism.

To begin with, these ideas would have
little influence in Afghanistan.

But they would take hold there and
mutate into a dark and violent force

that was completely at odds
with Reagan's vision of freedom.

At the beginning, though, no-one
knew who to give the weapons to,

and an odd group of adventurers
went into Afghanistan to find out.

One of the first was a Texan
socialite called Joanne Herring.

When I went in to Afghanistan -
I don't even know how I got in -

the president of Pakistan flew me
to the border, you know,

the no man's land that the
British created - very wisely -

between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

And we boarded a truck -
I put on men's clothing -

and we got on this truck
and went somewhere.

And we went into these camps

and there would be these men

with beards and turbans...
in rags, really.

They had nothing.

And with their 1918 Enfield rifles,

they would stand there
and they'd say,

"To the last drop of blood!"

And your heart would just burst.
But I thought,

"What will they do with an unveiled
woman coming in here?"

And I thought, you know,
they really may kill me

because they might not understand
why I'm here. But they did.

They were so grateful. So grateful.

They said, "The world doesn't know.
Thank you for coming."

PLANES PASS OVERHEAD

EXPLOSION

My...heart was given
immediately to these people

who believed so much in their god,

and I think it's the same god...

..as I worship.

Just in another way.

And they would come back and, of
course, completely exhausted

and almost dead - those
who were still alive -

and then this new group would say,

"I can't wait to go out
and kill Russians."

MAN: 'This is Radio Afghanistan
calling Europe.'

This is Radio Afghanistan,
Kabul, and here is the news.

43 cases of bullets
for 300 3-bore guns,

an Egyptian Kalashnikov,

11,300 other bullets
of various types,

including rocket launchers and mines,

and 170 various types of weapons,

45 mortar shells,

light and heavy machine guns,
typewriters and cameras,

have recently been seized from
the counter revolutionary bandits...

MALE REPORTER: Ask him
to speak to the daughter.

MAN TRANSLATES

FEMALE REPORTER: Can he give her
the flower? Give her the flower.

MEN SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

MALE REPORTER: Karen, please.

It is better if he gives her flower
than if Karen gives her the flower.

MEN TALK OWN LANGUAGE

Sorry. Can you do it? Ask him
to do it while I'm filming.

Just ask him to put it down...

MAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK.

MAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

EXPLOSION

MAN COUGHS

GUITAR PLAYS

MAN SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union
was falling apart.

The attempt to create a planned
socialist society had failed.

It had become a stagnant world
where the shops were half empty,

criminal gangs looted the factories,

and no-one believed
in the system any longer.

The ageing Soviet leaders knew
that Russian society was collapsing

but they had no idea what to do.

And in the face of this, Afghanistan
became, for them, a last desperate

attempt to create a model version
of their original communist ideal.

Faced with a growing rebellion
in the countryside,

the Russians took over Afghanistan

and installed another student
revolutionary as president.

He was called Babrak Karmal

and he did what he was told.

And as well as the Russian troops,
thousands of teachers and doctors

came to set up programmes and
hospitals that were going to

transform the lives
of the Afghan people.

SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

..it was 151...in the right
arm in sitting position.

Why did you come to Afghanistan?

Was it compulsory posting or
was it of your own free choice?

Why...I did come to Afghanistan?

OK, I will tell you.

I'm doctor.

I want to help people.

Patient. It is the main reason
I come to Afghanistan.

Do you say this right?

But it was your free choice that you
came here, you were not sent here?

Only free choice.
Only free choice.

And Afghan women were taught
to be independent

so they could free themselves
from the repression

of what the Soviets saw
as a backward religion.

You know, after the revolution,

the woman in Afghanistan will be
same, like man, yes?

They're the same.

You know what I mean?

You know, in society

and also in economy and everything.

But outside the cities,
the mujaheddin rebels

increased their attacks.

They were becoming more confident
and powerful.

Using weapons supplied by the
Americans and the Saudis,

they ambushed Russian convoys.

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

The mujaheddin treatment
of their Russian prisoners

was ruthless and cruel.

..and we captured two Russians alive.

Then we took them to our commander.

And then the commander told us
to stone them into death.

And we took them and we
stoned them into death.

- They stoned them to death?
Yes.

Have many people here stoned Russians
or Afghan communists to death?

MAN TRANSLATES

MURMURS OF AGREEMENT

In response, the Russians launched
search and destroy missions,

often bombing whole villages,

massacring hundreds of civilians.

The war became a vicious struggle,

with the mujaheddin using
equally brutal tactics.

And any idea of transforming
Afghanistan began to slip away,

and the Russians retreated
into the cities.

INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER

Comrade General, what is the military
situation in the country?

But the rebels came into the cities

and began to kill
the Russian civilians.

They hid bombs in everyday objects

that exploded the moment
anyone used them.

Everything around the Russians
became frightening and unstable.

The forces that they had unleashed
were pursuing them

and as they did so they began to eat
away at the very foundations

of Soviet communism.

One of the bravest and most honest
of the Russian journalists

in Afghanistan was Artyom Borovik.

He wrote, "We thought that we were
civilising a backwards country

"by exposing it to television,
to modern bombers, to schools,

"to the latest models of tanks,

"to books, to long-range artillery,

"to newspapers, to economic aid,
to AK-47s.

"But we rarely stopped to think
how Afghanistan would influence us,

"despite the hundreds of thousands
of Soviet soldiers, diplomats,

"journalists and political advisers
who passed through it.

"They were thrown into a country
where bribery, corruption,

"profiteering and drugs
were no less common

"than the long lines
in Soviet stores.

"These diseases can be far more
infectious and dangerous

"than hepatitis, particularly when
they reach epidemic proportions."

HE LAUGHS

Borovik said the Russians
resembled the astronauts

in a famous Soviet science fiction
film called Solaris.

The astronauts find a planet
covered with a giant ocean

that seems to be conscious.

And to try and influence the ocean,

they bombard it with X-rays.

What they don't realise is that
the ocean is irradiating them.

It is playing back,
in the astronauts' minds,

memories of the past,

but in such a vivid way that they
begin not to trust anything

that they think or believe.

Afghanistan, Borovik said,

was doing the same to the Russians.

It had led them to distrust the very
basis of everything they believed in.

And they were taking that
distrust back with them

into the heart of Russia.

APPLAUSE ON TV

'Could Labour have managed
a rally like this?'

AUDIENCE: 'No!'

'In the old days, perhaps,
but not now.

'For they are the party of yesterday,

'and tomorrow is ours.'

APPLAUSE ON TV

The massive increase in the price
of oil imposed by the Saudis

had caused economic and
social chaos in the West.

Governments had struggled to deal
with it, but they had failed.

And in the 1980s, right-wing
governments came to power in Britain

and America who turned to radical
new ways to create economic growth.

To begin with, the new
policies seemed to work.

Inflation was squeezed
out of the system

and the economies began to stabilise.

But then there were other
unexpected consequences.

Interest rates had risen massively -

and this decimated manufacturing
industry in both Britain and America.

Factory after factory closed.

High-paid skilled jobs
were replaced by low-wage jobs

in the service industries,

and living standards began to fall.

But then the politicians
found a solution.

If you couldn't make wages
grow any longer,

instead you would get the banks
to lend people money.

And in the mid-1980s, governments
removed the restrictions

on the banks' lending,

and a wave of borrowing spread
through Britain and America.

Even if their wages were static,
people felt wealthier,

and had the money to buy things
and keep the economy working.

And the power to manage society began
to move even more from politics

to the financial system.

Weapons free, battle stations.

Weapons free, weapons free.

But there was one industry
in Britain that had survived

and, in fact, was growing.

It was the arms industry and
its vast trade with Saudi Arabia.

But rather than strengthening
the politicians' power,

it undermined it further,
through corruption.

REPORTER: The King's train
was 20 minutes late

arriving at Victoria Station.

It was delayed while a suspicious
box on a bridge over the track

was checked, and found
to be harmless.

When he eventually stepped
on to the platform,

it was to a full royal welcome.

ADAM CURTIS: Through the 1970s,
British arms companies had signed

more and more contracts
with the Saudis,

and they became a central
part of a new industry

that was run from the very
heart of the British government.

We're in the Ministry of Defence
in Whitehall.

Behind these doors there's a room.

A room which few people
apart from Arab Sheiks

and other potential foreign customers
have ever set eyes on before.

This way, please.

This is it, the permanent
Defence Equipment Exhibition,

the supermarket of the sales
organisation which this year

will sell nearly £600 million
worth of British military hardware

to foreign governments.

Week in, week out, overseas service
chiefs come here discreetly

to shop for anything from guided
missile destroyers and aircraft

to a pair of army boots.

And they've got quite a choice.

There are hundreds of individual
British manufacturers

in this business. Glossy coloured
brochures in every language,

including, of course, Arabic.

Everywhere in this amazing exhibition
there are models showing

the hardware in action,
showing what the hardware can do.

Big missiles, little missiles -

here's the short blowpipe
surface-to-air missile with which

one soldier can bring
an aircraft out of the sky,

straight from the shoulder.

More missiles here,
the short Tigercat missile,

simple in operation, recommended
for its high lethality at low cost.

Aircraft are very expensive
these days

and so you don't want them
to have just one...

ADAM CURTIS: By the 1980s, the giant
orders from Saudi Arabia

had become essential to Britain.

While much of British
industry had closed,

the arms business kept growing.

..from air to ground.

No, no, no, I'm the Prime Minister.

I have to see the super
saleswomen do their job.

ADAM CURTIS: And in 1985 Mrs Thatcher
announced what was going to be

the biggest arms deal in history.

The extraordinary arms deal,

which has impressed military experts
throughout the world.

It emerged today that Britain
and Saudi Arabia have signed

what's thought to be one of
the biggest arms agreements.

The deal will mean Saudi Arabia
will get many more combat planes,

training aircraft, new mine hunters,
two new airbases,

and much training and support.

It means Britain is pulling
level with, if not overtaking,

the United States as the biggest
military supplier to the Saudis.

ADAM CURTIS: The Al-Yamamah deal
was presented as a triumph

of British ingenuity and skill.

But ever since, there have been
allegations that really it was

secured by vast bribes to key members
of the Saudi establishment.

British Aerospace admit
that there were payments,

but insist they were not bribes.

But then, in 1990,

it became clear that all the
arms trade with Saudi Arabia

had been a complete charade.

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait

and the leaders of Saudi Arabia
realised that,

despite all this hardware -
all the planes, the missiles,

the bombs and the radar systems -

that their country was incapable of
using it properly to defend itself

against Saddam Hussein.

So they had to turn to America
and its military might for help.

At my direction, elements
of the 82nd Airborne Division,

as well as key units of the
United States Air Force,

are arriving today to take up
defensive positions in Saudi Arabia.

I took this action to assist
the Saudi Arabian government

in the defence of its homeland.

Osama bin Laden had
returned from Afghanistan

and he went to see the Saudi Defence
Minister and pleaded with him

not to let the Americans come.

He offered to raise a force of
mujaheddin fighters in Afghanistan

and bring them to defend
Saudi Arabia instead.

But the Defence Minister
turned him down.

And within weeks, over
half a million American soldiers

had arrived in Saudi Arabia.

Bin Laden saw it as the corrupt
takeover by the West

of the very heart of Islam.

Cameraman, please show them
what's going on, if you could.

Show the street, if nothing else.

ADAM CURTIS: And he decided that
America, although it had been

his ally in Afghanistan,
was the real enemy.

Show them the sky, if you could.

GENTLE CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS

No, wait, what strange noise is that?

MUSIC CONTINUES

What trickery is this?

You, up there, what is this noise?
Can you see what is happening?

Oh, yes, they are sitting down
to dinner.

Sitting down to dinner?
Are they stark raving bonkers?

These people, sometimes,
they infuriate me!

Oh, they come out here
with their starched uniforms

and their stiff upper lips and their
dirty great flags hanging out.

- Think they own the place!
- They do.

Well, they won't much longer.
Start the attack!

By the time I've finished with them,
their stiff upper lips will be

so limp they'll be hanging down
to their navels.

I will kill the pigs! Fire!

GUNFIRE AND EXPLOSIONS

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

Fuckin' hell!

GUNFIRE

INDISTINCT SHOUTING

EXPLOSION

- Jesus, fucking target...
- Right!

GUNFIRE CONTINUES

SHOUTING CONTINUES

I'm not denying that I'm not a
mullah, I'm a mullah in a mosque.

- Not with the Taliban.
- Right, yeah.

So, I mean, they arrest me
and they brought me here...

Did he say they were...
Did he say they beat him?

Beat him and electrocution, yeah.

Signed a false confession?

Does he say they forced him
to sign a confession?

No, no, he didn't say that.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

TRANSLATOR: Yeah, I mean, they
force me, they beat me

and they put my stamp,

saying that you are talib.

Does he know... Does he know - are
there lots of Taliban here?

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

TRANSLATOR: Well, I mean,
as I have told you before,

it's 90% of the people who are here,

they came by the name of Taliban here
but they are not actually Taliban.

They arrest them
and they brought them here.

When the Russians left Afghanistan,

the different mujaheddin groups
turned on each other

and began a vicious struggle
for power.

Kabul was completely destroyed
as the different groups fired

thousands of rockets indiscriminately
into the heart of the city.

And Kabul became a living hell.

PEOPLE SHOUT

SHE SHOUTS IN OWN LANGUAGE

EXPLOSION

MAN: Jesus Christ.

The mujaheddin leaders transformed.

They became brutal warlords,
tearing the country apart.

The Americans had stopped
sending any money or arms,

so to fund themselves, the warlords
turned to the heroin trade,

and they began to export more
and more opium to the West.

The poppy fields of Helmand

became the centre of a
multimillion-dollar business,

irrigated by the dams and canals

built 40 years before
by the American government.

Out of the chaos came two extreme
and violent reactions.

Both ruthlessly simplified the world

and both, although they were
completely contradictory,

were rooted in Wahhabism,

the intolerant fundamentalism
that came from Saudi Arabia.

One was the Taliban.

They started as a group of students
in religious schools in Pakistan

called madrassas, where many Afghan
children had gone to study.

They became the core of a revolution

that spread rapidly through
Afghanistan.

Although they were in Pakistan, most
of the madrassas had been created

over the previous 20 years
by money from Saudi Arabia.

They were part of the massive effort
that had been started by King Faisal

to spread fundamentalism
throughout the Islamic world.

And the ideas that
the madrassas taught

were very close to
Saudi Wahhabism.

When the Taliban swept into Kabul,
they went to the Presidential Palace

and tore out all painted images
of living things,

even removing the faces
off the stone lions.

The society the Taliban built
was based on an imagined idea

of the past, a re-creation of how
they thought Islamic society

had been run in the 7th century.

All modernization was swept away.

Women were not to be educated,

and all film and music was banned.

And even the bodies of dead
communists were dug up and burnt -

to cleanse and purify the land.

The other reaction came from
Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden had come back to
Afghanistan

determined to lead
an Islamist revolution.

But his ideas were very
different from the Taliban.

He wanted to use Islamic principles
in a new way -

to make it a revolutionary force
in the modern world,

to go forwards, not backwards.

But the problem was that these ideas

had failed to capture
the public imagination,

not just in Afghanistan

but throughout most of
the Islamic world.

Bin Laden was convinced that what was
stopping this revolution

was America.

He had seen how American money
had corrupted Saudi Arabia.

Now he believed that America was
corrupting the minds of Muslim people

everywhere, and preventing them from
rising up and liberating themselves.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Bin Laden's Islamist ideas
began to mutate

and become mixed with the intolerant

and anti-modern anger of Wahhabism.

Out of it came a dark
and apocalyptic jihadism.

It said that the only way
to create a revolution

would be to attack what he called
"the far enemy" directly.

The dramatic shock would somehow
liberate the masses,

but all discussion of what kind of
society would result dropped away,

and was replaced by stark vision
of the coming battle

between good and evil.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CROWD CHANTS

America and the coalition forces
invaded Afghanistan

not just to find those behind
the attacks on America

but also to transform Afghanistan

into a modern democracy.

It was a grand plan

but the logic behind it was simple.

If the innocent people of Afghanistan
could be liberated

from the evil forces
that had terrorised them,

then they would become
free individuals.

And out of that, a democracy,

like those in the West,
would grow naturally.

Tens of thousands of Americans
and Europeans would pass through

the country over the next ten years -

soldiers, diplomats, experts,

political advisers and journalists.

All of them trying to
build this new society.

But few of them stopped to think
whether what had happened

to the Russians 20 years before

might also happen to them.

That, in a strange way, Afghanistan
has revealed to us the emptiness

and hypocrisy of many our beliefs.

And that we may be
returning from there

also haunted by mujaheddin ghosts,

knowing that, underneath,
we believe in nothing.

After the shock of the attacks in
September 2001, the greatest fear

was that the American economy
might collapse as well.

In response, the politicians,
advised by their economic experts,

cut interest rates to almost zero.

This allowed cheap money
to flood through the system

and avoid disaster.

The banks lent money
to anyone and everyone.

It was the politicians looking to
the financial system

to stabilise the country.

SHE TALKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

At the same time, thousands
of experts and advisers

flooded into Afghanistan.

Their aim was to transform the
country into a modern democracy.

This optimistic vision
of a future Afghanistan

was celebrated in the Kabul Stadium.

It was the same stadium where the
Russians had celebrated

their new model for Afghanistan
20 years before.

Last year we think that we can never
can be alive again, we will die.

But now we are...we are thinking
that we are alive again,

and we are too happy.

And also, from America,
that they help a lot,

we are very appreciative of them.
Thanks a lot.

I think now everything is normal.

The man and woman
can work in one place

and no any different between them,

and I think everything is going
to...good day by day.

- And this is our school...
- That's your school board.

- Yeah.
- OK.

Actually, can I just... Hello? Hello?

ADAM CURTIS: All kinds of groups
came to Kabul to help the project.

It was like a snapshot of what those
in power in America and Britain

believed made democracy work.

As well as the obvious lessons
in how to organise elections

and conferences on how to stop
the narcotics trade,

young Afghan students
were also given lessons

in how to make conceptual art.

So, this is, in some ways,

often called the first
piece of conceptual art.

MAN TRANSLATES

Does anyone know what it is?

MAN TRANSLATES

I don't expect the ladies to know.

MAN TRANSLATES

MAN: Toilets.
- Exactly.

An artist called Marcel Duchamp,

who's very important in Western art,

put this toilet in an art gallery

about 100 years ago.

It was a huge revolution.

Are you ready to see how it is used?

Underlying it all was a belief
that the battle

was to create a good society,

one that would be strong enough
to stand against the bad,

anti-democratic forces that had
overwhelmed Afghanistan.

But then it began
to get confusing.

The Americans discovered that was it
was very difficult to know exactly

who was good and who was bad.

When they had invaded, they had
been helped by Afghans

who were already
fighting the Taliban.

The Americans had assumed they would
help to create the new democracy,

and appointed many of them
to run the country.

But now it turned out that many of
them were actually the very same

corrupt and violent warlords
who the Taliban had overthrown.

And they were using their new power

to terrorise the country
all over again.

Gul Agha Sherzai had been made
Governor of Kandahar.

But he was also alleged to be
making a million dollars a week

from running the opium trade,

while at the same time siphoning
off millions from the Americans

in inflated contracts.

When President Karzai was persuaded
to remove Sherzai,

he simply made him governor
of another province.

But he was not alone.

Throughout much of Afghanistan,
the warlords had returned to power.

But this time it was worse.

The massive influx of American money
allowed them to extend their networks

of bribery and corruption to every
corner of Afghan society.

But the money was not just
corrupting individuals.

It was undermining the whole
structure of society,

above all the police.

Rather than enforcing the law,

the police had become transformed
into violent militias

who worked for the warlords.

They organised a massive
expansion of the drug trade.

And they also terrorised
the local people.

Ordinary Afghans came to
hate the police

and they saw them as the enemy.

And the Americans also weren't
as good as they appeared.

Jack Idema had been
portrayed as a hero,

working with the US Special Forces
to hunt down bin Laden.

He had arrived in Kabul three years
before and become a legendary figure.

CBS television had made an hour-long
special about the secret world

of terror that Idema had
discovered in the mountains.

It showed a tape that he said he had
found of the Al-Qaeda group training.

But then Idema was arrested.

The Americans said
that he was a fake.

He had nothing to do with them,
and had conned CBS.

They alleged that
Idema had a dungeon,

hidden underneath his house in Kabul,

where he tortured innocent Afghans.

Tell him, basically I'm tired
of the lies. Where's his village?

In three minutes...he'll be dead.

MAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Idema was put on trial in Kabul.

He insisted, though, he had been
working with the highest levels

of the US military and government.

I know what's wrong with you...

Jack, who are you working for?

Uh, we were working for the
US Counter-Terrorist Group

and working with the Pentagon
and some other federal agencies.

So you were working with
US knowledge,

with US government knowledge?

We were in touch with the Pentagon
sometimes five times a day,

at the highest level, every day.

How do you feel about being
sort of let go by the Americans?

Fucked.

You can't use that quote.

Well, there you go,
that's the quote, my dear.

This government and our government

knew every single thing
we were doing.

ADAM CURTIS: Jack Idema was found
guilty and sent to jail.

But then it got even more confusing.

Because reports emerged that
the real American military

had been doing exactly
the same as Jack Idema.

They had set up a special torture
centre in an old Soviet hangar

at Bagram Air Base.

Ordinary Afghans were
shackled to the ceiling

and subjected to all
kinds of violent abuse.

But they went further
than Jack Idema.

The reports said that two of the
victims had been tortured to death.

Of course, it was very provocative.

People were very angry, and I think
it's important to understand

that when this kind of art emerged

it was partly political.

It was to fight against
the system and say,

"What is art is what I think it is."

One of the biggest concerns
we have is about the casualties

that took place because of
the result of cluster bombs.

OK, that's fine.

- OK, is that fly going to...?
- That fly.

- You can hear it, actually.
- You can, can't you?

FLY BUZZES
It's a blowie.

- It'll land.
- It's a blowie. Fuck off.

It's a bug.

Ah...

THUMP!

LAUGHING: This is an interview
about casualties.

There's going to be one more.

Ah! Jesus.

On the whole, I think everyone
finds it a very important event

and even more so,
the fact we're abroad

and not able to celebrate it at home.

Hence we're very happy to, uh,

do some small token towards
the Queen's celebrations.

And why, why a beacon here in Kabul?

I have absolutely no idea.

By 2006, the British and the
Americans realised that their project

to bring democracy to Afghanistan
was failing,

and large parts of the country
were descending into anarchy.

In Helmand, in Southern Afghanistan,
armed groups had risen up

and there was constant fighting.

The coalition were convinced that
this was the return of the Taliban,

and British troops were sent there
to restore order

and to help protect
the regional government.

But when the British commanders
asked the Ministry of Defence

for information about what was
happening in Helmand,

there was none.

There weren't even any
satellites looking at it.

They had all been moved
to look at Iraq.

The one thing they did know was that
they were going to the very heartland

of the tribe that had decisively
defeated the British

125 years before

at the Battle of Maiwand.

The British commander called
a meeting with the local elders.

It was in the very same town that
the American engineers had built,

50 years before, when they
were constructing the dam

across the Helmand River.

All three of us, the security,

governance, and for development.

We are the three who work
together as the British.

I know you've seen many foreigners
arriving in your country.

ADAM CURTIS: The commander
reassured the elders

that the British were there
to defeat the Taliban

and support the regional government.

COMMANDER: ..my forefathers
were even here before.

ADAM CURTIS: Next door, his officers
were preparing to entertain

the elders with a showing of
David Attenborough's series

The Blue Planet.

But the elders thought that the
British had completely misunderstood

the problem.

The real enemy was not the Taliban,

but the corrupt and vicious
government that President Karzai

had installed in Helmand
and was doing nothing to stop.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

And tell Mr President Karzai

if he bring a good governance,

the security situation
will be the same.

If you are here for 100 years,
it will be not good.

Once he brought good governance,

good people to the government,

then we have hope that the security
will be change.

The elders left without
watching The Blue Planet.

Before they came to Helmand,

the British had forced President
Karzai to get rid of its governor.

But they didn't realise that
he had left behind him

a completely corrupted society.

And nothing was what it seemed.

When the British
went into towns like Sangin,

they tried to support the police.

But the police were really the armed
militia for the sacked governor.

To the locals, this meant
that the western troops

were supporting their oppressors.

So they started to attack
the British.

Get inside!

Shit the bed.

That's close, that one,
out the back there.

It was.

Right, mate, get under it.

- Shit.
- Shit.

- They're overshooting on us.
- Stay down, lads, stay down.

- Is that incoming or outcoming?
- Fucking incoming now.

ADAM CURTIS: The British thought that
this must mean they were Taliban.

So in response they dropped
giant bombs on them.

Fuckin' hell.

MAN LAUGHS

- Did you get that, did you?
- Yes, I did. Fucking hell.

MAN LAUGHS

LAUGHING: Holy shit.

But this then devastated
the town centres,

which made even more local people
join in the attacks.

Seeing their chance,

the real ideological Taliban,
who were now based in Pakistan,

flooded back in and they started
attacking the British, too.

GUNFIRE

At the same time the corrupt militias
who worked for the local government

also turned against the British.

Faced by the chaos, the British still
clung to their simple narrative

of good and evil.

They - the Western forces -
were good.

And all the different groups who were
attacking them were Taliban,

and were bad.

But this extraordinary simplification
had terrible consequences.

Because if you were an Afghan
and wanted to kill a rival,

all you had to do
was go to the British

and tell them that he was a Taliban

and the British would
obediently wipe him out.

INCOMING ROCKET

- Fuck!
- Fuckin' hell!

- Yeah!
- Whoo!

The British were being used.

The terrible truth was that
the British presence

did not contain the war.

It did the very opposite.

It escalated it so much
that it ran out of control.

And the bodies - Afghan and British -
piled up.

The dynamic was one of manipulation.

They understood how we saw
the conflict.

They presented their local
group conflict,

their civil war between groups that
had been going on for 35 years.

They presented everything
in that dynamic.

So they came to us and said, "Those
people over there are Taliban."

And we went, "OK." And we went off
and dealt with them.

But, actually, we were dealing
with their previous enemies.

So we were just creating more
enemies for ourselves.

And you ended up in
a downward spiral where,

because everyone was manipulating us,

we ended up fighting everyone.

And then, in return, everyone who
fought us immediately became Taliban.

The way that we decided whether
you were Taliban or not

was whether you were firing at us.

SPORADIC GUNFIRE

Post 2001, whereas we've understood
the conflict as good/bad,

black/white, government/Taliban,

they've understood it as a shifting
mosaic of different groups

and leaders fighting each other,
effectively over power.

And the currency of power
in Helmand is opium.

That's largely what the
conflict's about.

So what you're saying is that
the...what we thought were

the Taliban was actually an allergic
reaction to us turning up

into the middle of
a complex civil war?

Correct.

- We made things worse?
- Tak.

EXPLOSION

- Where was that?
- That's over there on the left.

Oh, for fuck's sakes.

But then the British and the
Americans had to face up to the fact

that they might not be as good and
innocent as they thought they were.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

In 2009, the Presidential elections
were held.

Hamid Karzai stood and allied himself

with some of the most
powerful warlords.

But there were allegations that
the warlords rigged the vote

on a massive scale.

This was backed up with videos
that seemed to show

the warlords' followers
stuffing the ballot boxes

with hundreds of fake voting papers.

The coalition tried to
rerun the election.

But Karzai's main opponent refused

because he said it would be
even more corrupt.

So the British and Americans
had no choice

but to abandon their great dream
of a real democracy in Afghanistan.

They gave in and allowed Karzai
to become president again.

I still don't trust that fella.

Things look rather bad, sir.
What are we going to do?

Do, Captain? We're British,
we won't do anything.

- Till it's too late.
- Precisely.

That's the first sensible thing
you've said today.

- Thank you, sir.
- No, gentlemen, as always,

we will carry on as if nothing
was going to happen.

This morning...

the Federal Reserve, with support
of the Treasury Department,

took additional actions to mitigate
disruptions to our financial markets.

Today's events are fast moving.

But the chairman of the Federal
Reserve and the secretary

of the Treasury are on top of them,
and will take the appropriate steps

to promote stability in our markets.

ADAM CURTIS: And at
the very same time

as their simple plan was falling
apart in Afghanistan,

the politicians had to face
a crisis at home.

They had given power to the banks

because the bankers and the financial
technocrats had promised

that they could hold
the economy stable.

But in 2008, the whole intricate
system of credit and loans

that the banks had
created collapsed,

and there was growing panic as
giant financial institutions

faced bankruptcy.

The politicians in America
and Britain stepped in

and rescued the banks.

As they did so, they began to
discover that most of the major

financial institutions were also
riddled with corruption.

But unlike President Roosevelt
in the 1930s,

they didn't then try
and reform the system.

Instead they simply propped it up

by literally pouring billions more
pounds and dollars into the banks,

hoping that this would somehow
spread through the economies.

They had no other idea.

GUNFIRE

CHILDREN CRY

And, faced by disaster
in Afghanistan,

the politicians did exactly
the same there, too.

The Americans knew that the
idea of democracy was failing.

In desperation, they poured even more
money into the Afghan economy.

The idea was that this would somehow
create a simpler,

economic form of democracy

and that the free market
would liberate people.

They would become model consumers

following their own
rational self-interest,

just like in the economies
of the west.

And in an odd way, it worked.

Many of those in charge of the money

did behave in their own
rational self-interest.

They simply stole the money,

smuggled it out through
Kabul Airport,

and used it to buy
luxury properties in Dubai.

During this period it was estimated
that 10 million a day

was being taken out
of Afghanistan this way.

SHOUTING IN OWN LANGUAGE

The scandal seemed to
confirm for many Afghans

that the United States had not
brought democracy or free markets

to their country,

but instead a corrupt crony
capitalism that had taken over

Afghanistan and its government.

Which was the very same allegation

that as being made against
politicians at home,

in America and in Britain.

At the end of 2014,

British soldiers left Afghanistan.

All the bases were wiped out
as if nothing had been there.

Even the war memorials were packed up
and taken back to Staffordshire.

But they weren't the only fighters
who had left Afghanistan.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
had gone to Afghanistan

to fight the Soviets
back in the 1980s.

Then he had stayed on
to work with Osama bin Laden.

And in 2003 he went to Iraq

and set up a jihadist group
called Al-Qaeda in Iraq

to fight the American invasion.

Allahu Akbar!

Allahu Akbar!

Al Zarqawi was powerfully
influenced by bin Laden's ideas.

But he took them much further.

He and his group killed anyone
who they decided did not believe

in their fundamentalist ideas
and deserved to die.

Even the original founders
of Al-Qaeda were shocked,

and they sent him a letter telling
him to stop killing civilians.

But al-Zarqawi ignored them.

He was convinced that
the insurgency in Iraq

could be used to spread an Islamist
revolution throughout the Arab world.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

But before he could do this,

the Americans found al-Zarqawi
and dropped a large bomb on him.

But it didn't stop
the spread of the idea.

Despite al-Zarqarwi's death

his organisation survived,

and began to mutate into something
even more ferocious and ambitious.

But as it did so, it was possessed
by ghosts from the past.

What re-emerged was the fierce,
intolerant vision of Wahhabism

that had survived from the 1920s.

It had spread outwards through
Afghanistan in the 1980s and '90s

where it had become mixed
with modern Islamist ideas.

But now, faced by the nihilistic
horror in post-invasion Iraq,

any ideas of building a new
revolutionary future disappeared,

and, instead, the conservative
and backward-looking Wahhabism

became the dominating influence,

with its desire to retreat
to an imagined past.

In 2013, the Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant was formed.

Known as ISIS in the West.

Its aim is to create
a unified caliphate

throughout the Islamic world.

And although it uses the techniques
of modern media

it is, at heart, the same violent
dream that had driven the Bedouins

who had created the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia in the 1920s.

Back then, the King of Saudi Arabia
had found it necessary

to try and exterminate them

because they, too, wanted
to go on and conquer

the whole of the Islamic world.

He machine-gunned them in the bleak
sands of the Arabian Peninsula.

And now the Saudis, along with
the British and Americans,

are trying to do
the same thing again -

to kill the jihadists and their ideas

in the sand dunes of
Northern Iraq and Syria.

But it is an uncertain war.

Western politicians are having
to accept that the simple division

between good and evil doesn't exist.

By bombing ISIS, they are helping
the evil President Assad

to remain in power.

And those in charge don't even know
how big a threat ISIS really is.

Is it a dark, existential threat?

Or is it really a front,

being used in an ongoing complex
power struggle inside Iraq?

We just don't know.

At the end of the Soviet
science fiction film Solaris,

the astronaut returns home.

Everything seems real and normal.

But somehow he doesn't trust
in anything any longer.

Although we have the returned
from Afghanistan,

our leaders also seem to have
lost faith in anything.

And the simple stories they tell us
don't make sense any longer.

The experience of Afghanistan

has made us begin to realise that
there is something else out there

but we just don't have
the apparatus to see it.

What is needed is a new story.

And one that we can believe in.