This excellent series of videos by British documentary maker, Adam Curtis called "The Power Of Nightmares" accurately describes how the "War on Terror" was manufactured after the fashion of the cold war, in order that domestic population would remain compliant to the will of politicians. It is a long watch but worth the effort in my opinion.
The films compare the rise of the American Neo-Conservative movement and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and noting strong similarities between the two. More controversially, it argues that the threat of radical Islamism as a massive, sinister organised force of destruction, specifically in the form of al-Qaeda, is in fact a myth perpetrated by politicians in many countries—and particularly American Neo-Conservatives—in an attempt to unite and inspire their people following the failure of earlier, more utopian ideologies
