Eye-raq: Santorum, Tolkien and terror
I am the first in line to enjoy a good Lord of the Rings analogy. But there is something distinctly off in Sen. Rick Santorum’s effort to recast the Iraq War in Tolkienian terms:
Embattled U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum said America has avoided a second terrorist attack for five years because the “Eye of Mordor” has been drawn to Iraq instead.
Santorum used the analogy from one of his favorite books, J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1950s fantasy classic “Lord of the Rings,” to put an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq into terms any school kid could easily understand.
“As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else,” Santorum said, describing the tool the evil Lord Sauron used in search of the magical ring that would consolidate his power over Middle-earth.
“It’s being drawn to Iraq and it’s not being drawn to the U.S.,” Santorum continued. “You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don’t want the Eye to come back here to the United States.”
The trouble here is not that Santorum is daring to compare a bloody real-life tragedy to a fantasy novel — pace my colleague Tim Grieve, who brought this bizarre tirade to my attention, or the spokesman for Santorum’s opponent, who complains, “You have to really question the judgment of a U.S. senator who compares the war in Iraq to a fantasy book.” That doesn’t bother me. Myths and fictions offer us powerful ways of seeing and talking about the real world. Popular politicians — like Ronald Reagan, who borrowed his “Evil Empire” imagery from George Lucas — understand this.
No, the problem is that Santorum’s analogy makes no sense. I think the senator means to offer a Middle Earth version of the GOP’s “We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here,” but he’s messed it up badly. (Warning: Tolkienian geekery ahead!)
First of all, in Tolkien’s saga, the good guys are outgunned and outmanned by the Dark Lord, whereas in our world, the U.S. is a “hyperpower” whose military, in 2001-2, seemed to bestride the world. Second, in Tolkien, the good guys sent Frodo with the Ring into the depths of Mordor as a sort of last-ditch, bet-everything gamble; then they sent an army to the gates of Mordor as a diversion — to keep the Eye occupied and distract it from the hobbits headed for Mount Doom.
Santorum says the war in Iraq was meant to keep the Eye distracted. But what kind of diversionary maneuver keeps more than a hundred thousand troops fighting and dying for years? And what are we distracting our enemy from? Who are our hobbits? What secret plan is underway to break the power of Al-Qaeda once and for all? None, of course, because this is where the analogy dissolves into air: In Middle Earth, the Dark Lord’s forces are centralized and his minions are incapable of operating independently; in our world, our enemy is organized as a headless guerrilla network. There is no “Eye” to distract.
It’s hard, in truth, to find any useful Middle Earth analogy to the Iraq War: the parallels break down across the board. Still, you might think of Bush’s invasion of Iraq as the equivalent of a beleaguered Gondor, attacked by the armies of Mordor across the River Anduin, sending its army off on an expedition to Far Harad, after its leaders issued proclamations that the White Council had incontrovertible evidence of the Haradrim’s possession of Rings of Mass Destruction.
Something like that, anyway. But as you can see it really doesn’t work, even when you try harder than Santorum.
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October 17th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Actually, I think that the analogy works better if the roles are swapped. Bush is Sauron and the US is Mordor. That would make Al-Qaeda the hobbits. And while 9/11 didn’t completely destroy the US entirely, it will never be the same again, in analogy with when the One Ring was destroyed in Orodruin.
But I don’t expect to hear that kind of analogy from an american and I will certainly not carry it any further for fear of being silenced by some agency (the Nazgûl?).
October 19th, 2006 at 9:08 am
well, Santorum kinda sounds like Sauron
October 21st, 2006 at 10:19 am
It sounds remarkably like he’d rather keep the public looking at Iraq and not paying any attention to the erosion of our rights and the failures of our government here at home.
November 10th, 2006 at 7:35 am
So what is going to be the response when Israel is either invaded or worse yet, bombed?
There are so many of you including the owner of this web site who are products of our liberal educational system in this country. I am telling you whether you be liberal or conservative, that you don’t know your history! It is buried and been kept buried in the archives of newspapers and magazines that exsisted during the late 1940’s and 1950’s. First to all the 3rd article of the Geneva conventio. Just read the following:
TIME TO RESTORE OUR HISTORY:
November 1, 2006
I don’t particularly like the AARP because I don’t agree with their politics and they are as political as any other special interest group in this country but I write to them as their newsletters get out to large numbers of Senior Citizens.
Ladies and gentlemen, the history of our country is being destroyed within our public school systems. IN honesty let me state upfront that I am one of those right wing Christian conservatives. Born in 1935, If someone had told me I would be condemned for being a Christian, I would have told them, you are crazy! What moves me to write this letter? When I saw the President of Iran on TV. My first thought was, Dear God, this man is this generations Adolph Hitler. It was his eyes! He has the same deranaged and ph6yscotic look in his eyes as Hitler did. Pull on your memory, back to the news reels we saw at the local theatres during the Second World War of Hitler giving speeches to his followers! The President of Iran is no more a Muslim than I am!
I start with the BS about the 3rd article of the Geneva Convention. I don’t remember when that was signed by our President but I do remember it was Harry Truman who signed it. I find it amazing that I can remember a classroom in 1952, in Warrensburg, Mo. when I was 17 and my maiden name was Ruth Scott if any others from there might read this and not know who I was, when I lay my glasses, down, wandering around the house fussing & fuming because I can’t find the damn things. But I do remember a sure sign that I am now one of the elderly!
IN that classroom we discussed the 3rd article of the Geneva Convention as it was much in the current news. My primary source was the Kansas City Star and the teacher, whose name I don’t remember, brought in the major newspaper of that time from St. Louis. That article was developed to mean only those who wore the military uniform of a sovereign nation and in fact terrorists or others never came up for discussion to my memory. One of the major points that we discussed and was concerned about was a US military man who might be working for our gov. but not be in uniform could be legally tried as a spy by another country. The one thing that group of 16 to 18 year old high school graduates agreed on was that it would protect others but never be honored by the future Hitler’s of this world. Our predictions were correct and time has proven us right!
Was it honored during the Korean conflict as it is called? Conflict my back side it was an out and out war, as those who fought knows. During Viet Nam or any other skirmish the US has been involved in. The International Red Cross was sometimes allowed to go in but that is the most corrupted political world organization, second only to the United Nations!
I maintain that if Hitler had had the United Nations to use as a tool, he might have been successful. Do you remember how many of the Arabic countries supported Hitler during the Second World War? That is an often neglected fact. I don’t even remember precisely but I do know that their hatred of the Jewish people was so ingrained into them. They would have sided with anyone who would annihilate the Jews. If Hitler had had those Arabic nations, Italy, Japan and others to support him, he just might have pulled it off, not to mention those who were so-called neutral. Most of us are aware but I had forgotten until my 89 yr. neighbor reminded me that Hitler was raised in a Christian home. She told me his parents were Catholic but I don’t remember. I do remember that Hitler hated all religions and he intended to set himself up as God! Plans were discovered after his death of the” temple” if you will call it that in Berlin which was to be his. Think of the irony of this. His first objection was the Jewish religion but who would he have gone after second? The Muslim cleric’s who hold such control over their people? Hundred and thousands of Allied troops died so that religion could continue to flourish while they scream about infidels on their holy ground. Christians would have been next in my opinion but he would not have ignored the Buddhist religion of the Orient either. Meaning Japan first.
Please feel free to challenge me if you think I am wrong!
I have been known to rant and rave about our ideology driven judges but I was wrong! They are not ideology driven they are just plain “college educated ignorant”! There is no lawyer or judge especially federal which doesn’t proudly proclaim where they were educated.
I drifted off subject—a senior moment so let me return to hatred! Our middle aged and young people of this country don’t really understand the depth of pure hatred! Let me take you back to the most horrific photo I ever saw! It was published after the Second World War in newspapers and magazines in every allied nation. The military captured a Nazi SS officer in Berlin I think it was and noted an unusual lampshade. When they examined it, it was made of a person skin. He proudly bragged of how it was made from the skin of a Jewish person, dried and made into a lampshade. The pictures of 9-11 and people leaping from the buildings of the WTC can’t match this horrific image and that image is in the archives of every newspaper and magazine of that time. I say it needs to be run on the front page of every news organization as a reminder of just how horrible hatred is. The bickering arguing going on in our country over politics today is equally as divisive as that! It is time to tell Washington DC to knock off the bullshit! We’ve had enough of tearing this country apart! It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree about the Iraq War, whether you love or hate our President, you helped send our troops there now stop knocking them. News organizations are controlled by plain old greed! I don’t have any disagreement with capitalism; it has kept this country going for years. I like having money in my pocket the same as you do! That is how they make their money. Keeping the pot boiling so people will buy a newspaper or tune in on their TV. The larger the number of viewers, the higher their prices for advertisement and yes I am talking about Fox news. What I want is to see that photograph on the front page of every news outlet in this country. For the purpose of reminding our citizens that hatred is real, it isn’t new and that it can and will destroy a nation, a culture or a religion. Hitler’s use of it is a historical lesson! That kind of hatred can’t be appeased or negotiated with either. We know that.
Even the AARP and other special interest groups get into the act using those programs applicable to the interest of their readers. For instance Medi-care and SS. The simple truth is our generation paid for SS for the generation of our parents and others including the farmers across this nation who never paid SS from their incomes. My parents were for many years Midwestern farmers and I have some of their old tax returns. They did good to feed us, let alone pay SS! Today’s generation of workers are paying for ours as well but isn’t it amazing what politicians in DC can do with monies send in? A little vote buying goes a long ways with someone else monies. It makes no difference if we don’t have a country or a government, now does it?
Yes I am a cynic and I have a crow to pick with conservatives as well. Get your heads out of your backsides! Politicians are mere mortal human beings. And as fallible as any human! You never put your complete trust in any of them, without asking yourself why and challenging! First of all FDR had many accusations hurled at him prior to the Second World War, he was accused of entering the war so bring the country out of the depression. Did he know or think this would happen, I don’t know and neither do you. The only person or people who might know are dead and in their grave. At a recent coffee klatch I have for senior citizens in my neighborhood one of the ladies quoted FDR, mocking his voice stated: I will never send your sons to war. My reply was: it is a good thing he did or we wouldn’t be sitting here talking in English. Those who hurled those accusations at FDR were not Democrats but Republican liberals. Yes, conservatives the Rep. Party was the liberal party then. How can I be so sure? I have in my possession a copy of Look Magazine published date: October 5, 1943 the article by Wendell Wilkie, Republican candidate of President entitled, “How The Republican Party Can Win in 1944” In the first paragraph he states: If the Republican party intends to drive heart and soul for the liberal objectives such as I seek to outline below, I shall gave it my complete and undeviating service.” Whether as the convention nominee or a worker in the ranks. He was the nominee and he lost overwhelmingly. We still have the remnants of those Rep. Liberals in our party today! Young conservatives, including my two sons want to ignore this historical fact and wouldn’t even read the article when I handed it to them. Why? Because their grandparents were Rep. and undoubtedly voted for Winkie. I have also heard their grandfather hurl accusations against FDR and Harry Truman. Neither of which were infallible men nor men without a pass! But yet they did what needed to be done when the time came. They along with Winston Churchill lead their countries through a war that had to be fought.
Now I will turn to our constitution. There is nothing mystical or necessary to interpret that document except plain old common sense and knowledge of our nation’s history!
First of all the framers of the constitution had no intention for it to be used as “rights” for anyone except those of us born in this country or naturalized citizens. Would anyone disagree with me on that issue? If so then I would surely like to have a good rip-snorting debate with you. I will win. That is the biggest line of BS to ever be foisted on the American people! When you cross our borders illegally, you don’t have rights, just as you cross into another country illegal, you won’t have any rights either. ON the question of religion, we were taught and correctly so that it was the freedom to make your own choice of religion, even if you choose not to believe in any. That came from immigrants who had lived in countries where there was a state declared religion! Our laws are based upon the Christian religion and modeled after England’s! Even if the peoples of the UK have forgotten about religion, we haven’t. It is an integral part of our society.
Last but not least, is the question of public schools? Talk to your grandchildren, or school children in your neighborhood. How many of them know how schools were established in our country? Do they know that as settlers moved westward they recognized the need of education for their children and together built schools, hired teachers paying for them their selves and sometimes with garden products, meats, or eggs and room and board? They used whatever material was available, wood, sod on the parries and even stone when that was what was available. The same is true of our churches! Standing today east of Laurieville, Mo, on county rd. O which is located on Highway 5 which runs north and south through central Missouri is a n old Catholic Church made of stone. It was built by settlers of mostly Irish and Scottish descent who emigrated there from the Appalachian areas of the US. Mostly Tn. And Kentucky. It is now on the historical registry of the US. There wasn’t a priest available full time so one came on certain Sunday’s of the months while the other times the church was used by Protestant denominations for their services. There are great grandparents, the Harahan’s are buried. What this church represents is the cooperation between members of the communities and with their neighbors regardless of their faith and creed. Something that seems to be forgotten even among religious groups today. My oldest brother fondly thought that perhaps our ancestors were involved in building the church. They were not! That Hanrahan grandfather came from Ireland, in 1849 and was not there at the time the church was built. Research shows that he was employed by a railroad company and living and working in other parts of our country. He attended the church after moving to Morgan County Mo. and was deeply involved in supporting the church he didn’t help to build it.
Another myth laid to rest.
My final point is that it is our generation who holds the memories of our past. The greatest generation has proceeded us to their deaths and it is now our responsibility to correct and to win this battle to sit our history straight. Please don’t fail me! If we are to keep our country secure for our children and grandchildren we must fight this battle. Move forward to the 1950’s and remember Khrushchev’s proud boast of we will destroy you from within and look at the players on the stage in today’s difficulties. How do you do that? By destroying the unity of our country and how else but through our children?
The United Kingdom has already lost, been destroyed! The peoples pride in their heritage and their country is gone! They have been destroyed by their children being taught that colonial England was BAD, BAD BAD! How many countries did colonial England open up and in fact mostly populate? The United States, but then we are bad, bad, too. Australia, the West Indies, and I don’t know my world history well enough to name them all. Hell no, they weren’t sweet, kind and gentle. You didn’t survive in that day and age by 2006 standards.
How many senior citizens remember again the news reels at the movies of wave after wave of Nazi bombing attacks on London and other cities of that country? Some of them send their children to foreign lands to stay with strangers, in the United States to keep them safe. They didn’t flinch and they didn’t falter but look at them now. I jokingly said we should send them a large supply of Viagra so their men could have an erection and remember what it felt like to be men. Not funny! Much to serious and we need to take heed. This is exactly the same twisting of history that is happening today in our country. In our schools under the auspices of multi-culturalism, illegal immigration and denial of our Christian heritage. How many in the UK now claim to be Christian?
Spaking of illegals it seems only fair to me that Rep. should be in control of both houses as this issue comes front and center stage! Both parties are in this up to their necks and it is time for them to stop the lying! This has been going on with illegal Mexicans since the late 1970’s and it was Reagan who signed the first amnesty bill. On that subject I only have one thing to say. If your first allegiance is too the United States then welcome, you are my countryman. If it doesn’t then get your backside out of our country because we don’t want you! Now that I have whacked on Republicans I have a question for old time Democrats in this country, such as some of my relatives and friends. Who is this dual citizen mega billionaire who has bought your political party? Who sold it to him? Are you going to sit on your backsides and never question while you blindly follow? So you think it is great fun to follow the news, the turmoil, and the hatred, as our country is divided and torn apart? How many times does the Bible warn us not to follow false leaders, false prophets, and false Messiah’s? The ACLU is one of the most disliked organizations in this country for their constant attacks against the Christian religion but just who contributes to their actions and lawsuits? George Soros and his liberal left wing groups bought your party years ago. When was it? Where did his money come from? He’s spent more already than he was suppose to be worth so where is his source of revenue coming from now? Why have members of the rank and file Democrat party ignored this man? Judges as we all know have been granting the ACLU lawyers fees as they sue school districts, towns, counties and other entities across this country regarding issue’s of church versus state, so called rights of non citizens etc. yet the Republican controlled Congress didn’t pass a bill to stop this until just the past few months and then part of the so called Christian right Rep. didn’t vote for that bill.
On the subject of torture I would like for John McCain, Chuck Hagel, Joe Biden and Patrick Leahy face and explain their position on torture to 300 surviving veterans of WWTwo! Those who fought through the Battle of the Bulge, survivors of the Batan Death March, those who fought their way onto the beaches of Guadalcanal and other Pacific fronts. I can just hear the crass comments those men would make and their laughter of derision.
Furthermore let’s bust a couple more myths, one about the Flying Black Squadron! No we didn’t need the History channel or Oliver North on Fox News to tell us about that. We already knew and were proud of those men. Nor did we need them to tell us about the Japanese American men who fought. We knew and we also knew they were kick ass fighters and respected them for it. Senior citizens among our Japanese American population have not been totally honest. They know there were many Japanese encountered during the Second World War, who were American educated, born here and raised here who joined their homeland, as they considered it. Newspaper across the US reported this and I have a lot more faith in the news media of the 2940’s then I have of any today! Liberal or conservative. Those reporters or journalists were unabashedly pro-American and made no bones about it. You don’t find that today. Why should we trust any of them? Answer? We don’t.
Why were there no reports in the news media of an accusation that in the 1980’s Ted Kennedy the Senior Senator from the state of Massachusetts was messing around with the Soviets and the KGB? In one article it mentioned that the KGB records in Moscow have never been opened and made public? Why not President Putin? The people of the world can’t know who and what are in them? While at the same time Putin is supporting the Iranian President at the United Nations while China supports N. Korea? The storm clouds are gathering on the horizons while we sit here and argue about the 2006 elections. What good or difference does it make, who is in control, if we have no country to control? Shall we sit here like the Katrina victims, pretend that no storm is coming and we are ignorant of the fact there are levees or shall we stand up and fight to protect our country? I am in favor of standing, I want my children and grandchildren to be able to live in the freedom their ancestors fought for and defended.
Ruth Skidmore
P O Box 136, Plymouth Ca.
raskidmore@comcast.net
209-245-6780
This doesn’t just come from Republicans: I have spoken to older citizens who are also still Democrats, although I don’t understand their loyalty to that party because It isn’t the party it was during World war Two.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
ramy ayash…
Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin…..