Advance:recede :: stiff:flexible
If you haven't heard, Senator Rick Santorum has recently made the world's worst analogy regarding the war in Iraq. Well, actually, it might be the best analogy, but it's certainly not what he was aiming for.
“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.”
If I recall the story correctly (truth be told, I've only seen the movies, but I imagine this part stays pretty much the same between the films and the books), the Eye is drawn to places like Minas Tirith and elsewhere in search for the ring. Frodo and Sam are actually in Mordor, home to Sauron and his crazy, crazy eye, and the battles and campaigns in the rest of Middle Earth are merely distractions.
Based on Mr. Santorum's analogy, Iraq is the diversion from what's really going on, which is two people on a quest to destroy something. Where is this quest happening? In the story, the quest is in Mordor itself. And that's where the diversion is distracting from. Which makes the United States... Mordor.
If that's not bad enough, try to imagine the good and evil roles reversed (the eye of Sauron being good, Frodo and co. being bad, etc.); not pretty, eh? The situation in Iraq has already been established as the diversion to distract the Eye (the American people? the world community?) from a few people seeking to destroy something that's small, yet with great power (for instance, the recent bill on "terror prosecution", which essentially abolishes habeas corpus).
Stephen Colbert playing with Lord of the Rings toys, though, makes it all bearable.
“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.”
If I recall the story correctly (truth be told, I've only seen the movies, but I imagine this part stays pretty much the same between the films and the books), the Eye is drawn to places like Minas Tirith and elsewhere in search for the ring. Frodo and Sam are actually in Mordor, home to Sauron and his crazy, crazy eye, and the battles and campaigns in the rest of Middle Earth are merely distractions.
Based on Mr. Santorum's analogy, Iraq is the diversion from what's really going on, which is two people on a quest to destroy something. Where is this quest happening? In the story, the quest is in Mordor itself. And that's where the diversion is distracting from. Which makes the United States... Mordor.
If that's not bad enough, try to imagine the good and evil roles reversed (the eye of Sauron being good, Frodo and co. being bad, etc.); not pretty, eh? The situation in Iraq has already been established as the diversion to distract the Eye (the American people? the world community?) from a few people seeking to destroy something that's small, yet with great power (for instance, the recent bill on "terror prosecution", which essentially abolishes habeas corpus).
Stephen Colbert playing with Lord of the Rings toys, though, makes it all bearable.