Dennis Nyback correctly compares the war in Iraq to War and Peace. Those who do not want to read the whole thing need only read Chapter 2 of Book 13 for a chilling foreshadow of Baghdad. Napoleon has issued a proclamation assuring Muscovites that the French conquest has changed nothing: they can still go about their business and follow their religion as before, but now with the benefits of a modern, rational society. The ungrateful Russians instead engage in sabotage and insurgency.

The War on Terror, on the other hand, is the Simpsons. Specifically, in one episode, Bart walks Lisa every day to her saxophone lesson and then goes to his karate lesson. At dinner every night, Bart tells the family all of the self-defense skills he has learned in his class, especially the claw of death, which he demonstrates.

One day, some thugs attack them as they are going to class. Lisa urges Bart to use the claw of death. But Bart does not know the claw of death, if it even exists. He has actually been taking the money that his mother has given for karate lesons to a local video arcade. We got the same feeling after Katrina, when we learned that George Bush had spent money that was to go to the war on terror to employ unqualified party hacks.

One of your contributors mentions Pulp Fiction.

I wanted to remind folks of how PF was a genuinely prophetic movie. It spoke a universal truth which radiated out from the personal, to the national, and on to the universal.

The personal; how should we respond to an event so improbable that it boggles the mind?

The national; how should we respond to the 9/11 attacks? What is the best course, to be like Jules and seek deeper truths, or like Vinnie, steadfastly refusing to be boggled?

The universal; who's really running this show?

I'd suggest Mel Brook's classic "The Producers".. two a theatrical producer and his accountant (Rove and Wolfowitz, perhaps), enlist the services of an incompetent Nazi scriptwriter (the GOP) to write a musical which will be a disaster ("drowning government in the bathtub"), whereupon they'll run away to Rio (didn't the Bushes just buy 100K acres in Paraguay)? When it all goes horribly wrong, they decide to blow up the theatre (or maybe that's 9/11.. hmm..)

Anyone out there remember "M.A.S.H." (the 1970 Robert Altman film, not the TV series)? Robert Duvall's Major Frank Burns is the perfect metaphor for the Bush administration. In one scene, the character of Duke Forrest (played by Tom Skerritt) sums up Burns this way: "Anytime a patient croaks on him, he claims it's God's Will, or someone else's fault!"

Think about it. The "patient" could be anything: Iraq, New Orleans, North Korea. With Bush it's always "God's will" (i.e., something that could not have been "foreseen") or someone else's fault. 9/11? Bill Clinton's fault (besides, no one could have foreseen that terrorists would use airplanes as guided missiles, PDB's not withstanding). New Orleans? No one could have foreseen the breaches of the levees. Iraq? No one could have foreseen the rise of the insurgency, or the onset of civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites. North Korea has nukes? Bill Clinton's fault.

Where are Hawkeye and Trapper John when you need them?

The US body politic is Gulliver; the partisan hacks and neocons, the six-inch Lilliputians who have him tied down.

Heard this exact thing argued at a conference earlier in the year by a media expert. She talked about how films are "read" by audiences beyond those imagined by the director. She argued that LOTR became a hit because a lot of the nonAmericans saw the White House as Sauron and the evil empire is the US. The evil eye is the many forms of surveillance the US practices. The company of the nine is made up of violent non-state actors who take on the empire against all odds. This means that all those that US classifies as terrorists can be seen as "heroes" from the other side. Aragon - all those who wander are not lost - is a symbol of major Middle Eastern feudal dynasties that hearken back to many centuries ago, and yet have been denied power in the colonial games played by various Western states in the past couple of centuries. The elves are obviously divinely inspired with vision to see beyond the physical reality (did someone remember Ahmadinijad). The dwarves are the peninsular Arabs - rough yet able to contribute great deeds. Hobbits - of course, as always "Usman's shirt," (as they call themselves) - the Palestinians - whose land is destroyed and laid barren and they are enslaved by Saruman - one of Sauron's minions - in a fit of vengeance. After all, doesn't Saruman hold the Shire dearer than all other bits of land - a metaphor for Israel. And so on and so on....The analogy was quite complex and quite convincingly argued. But I would not be able to reproduce all the details.

The evil eye btw - is the North Korean nuclear test. Something that was brought up at the discussion afterwards as a possibility and I was reminded of the talk when the tests actually happened. It is a distraction from whatever happens in the middle east.

Moreover, just as the battle of Rohan was lost - Hizbollah vs Israel - and set the tone for defeat of Sauron, so does the idea of Iran preparing for a great confrontation link in. The army of the dead was linked to Afghanistan although I would not be able to tell you exactly how. And what is the secret (ie the Ring carried into the heart of Sauron's kingdom), is still not revealed to us in the realpolitik of the world....

Btw - the paper was presented by a novelist and film theorist called Sunny Singh at the last ISA (International Studies Association conference). You might find it interesting. She can be found at www.sunnysingh.net, in case you want to hear more on how Hollywood blockbusters are RE-interpreted by the rest of the world. Shocked me I tell you.