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« The coup option in Iraq | Main | HRW and the Lobby »
Tuesday
Oct242006

Iraq = Mordor

According to Rick Santorum, anyway:
In an interview with the editorial board of the Bucks County Courier Times, embattled Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has equated the war in Iraq with J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." According to the paper, Santorum said that the United States has avoided terrorist attacks at home over the past five years because the "Eye of Mordor" has been focused on Iraq instead.

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said. "It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."
So then Bin Laden is Sauron, Bush is Aragorn, Cheney is Gandalf, Rumsfeld is Gimli and American special forces are hobbits? Hmm, it seems they're having a hard time finding the One Ring and defeating (even catching) Sauron. Oh, Sam...

Update: Paul sends this pic with the caption "Frodo failed."

Bushring

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    Response: art toddler
    [...]Iraq = Mordor - Blog - The Arabist[...]

Reader Comments (4)

Oct 24, 2006 at 8:41 PM | Unregistered CommenterAndrew Exum

This is so wrong. What, now the Bushies are trying to pretend that turning Iraq into a basket-case and militant-magnet was part of the plan to keep America safe by distracting Al-Qaeda? They think Americans are going to buy yet another Real Reason We Invaded Iraq du jour?

Most importantly, Bush is NOT Aragorn.

Aragorn is hot. And a bit further up the evolutionary scale.

Oct 24, 2006 at 9:25 PM | Unregistered CommenterSP

except the metaphor doesn't work, you see in lord of the rings the eye was drawn somewhere else so they could attack it at the heart of mordor itself.

so if the eye is on Iraq who instead of the US this means the Us is being attacked right?

Oct 25, 2006 at 3:10 AM | Unregistered Commenteralaa

The metaphor suggests that Al-Qaeda is Mordor, no? And Al-Qaeda's eye is being drawn to Iraq so it doesn't focus on the US and the US can attack Mordor in the meanwhile? Does that make more sense (to the extent that such a BS idea can make any sense) Alaa?

Oct 25, 2006 at 10:20 AM | Unregistered CommenterSP

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