A good friend of mine passed along an editorial from the Star-Telegram. The premise is that, for this year’s election, political lines can be drawn on which movie reflects your beliefs, Fahrenheit 9/11 or The Lord of the Rings.

The full article is on the web, but requires you to register. Sorry, but it is free.

It got me thinking about my own views, as a “Bush/Tolkien” voter. Tollers was a terrible writer who worked most of his life on the true masterpiece that is LOTR. He was inspired by his experiences as a soldier in WWI and a father and community leader during WWII. It’s fairly easy to see the Nazi war machine between the lines, though he flatly denied a direct link. But, in view of our current struggle, LOTR seems to be very prophetic. The links between the fantastic world of Middle Earth and the reality of our Earth are hard to ignore.

We have Sauruman the White, who became drunk with power and built a proud and mighty army only to be crushed by the powers of good and left powerless and bitter, all bark and no bite. Did you happen to see Saddam’s court appearance? Talk about bitter and powerless.

The Ents are the main component in the battle against Sauruman, the “boots on the ground” if you will. Ents are slow and methodical, but have tremendous power. They did their best not to get involved in the war, but when their own land and people were attacked by the forces of Isengard, their wrath exploded against their enemy. The battle itself was short and very one-sided.

Sauruman’s realm of Isengard is torn apart during the battle. The remnants are left to be rebuilt by the Ents. These lumbering giants occupy the land to return its former beauty. They are the perfect candidates for reconstruction since their work ethic and stubborn resolve will keep them at the job until it’s finished. If you will recall, the Kerry camp has used the word “stubborn” quite a bit lately.

We mustn’t forget, though, that Sauruman was not enemy number one. No, he was just a tool being used by the real foe, Sauron. Funny thing about Sauron, he’s not so much a person as a force. He has no physical body. Instead he is embodied by his evil emissaries. We hear so much about the hunt for Osama, but experts say that capturing Osama will not be the end of Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda has no single body that can be killed, no head that can be removed.

Instead, the militant Islamic movement has thousands, maybe millions, of tireless terrorists. They toil away, living in the most rudimentary conditions, training with antiquated equipment and make shift weapons. And most importantly, they have no respect for life, not even their own. They would gladly throw their body at the enemy, even if they accomplish nothing more than building a ramp of death up the side of the walls of freedom. This picture is not as evident in the movie, but in the book, at the battle of Helms Deep, there was a real concern that the dead orcs would pile up high enough that the survivors could clamber up the pile of corpses and over the wall.

If nothing else, this is a thought provoking analysis that some high schooler can steal from my blog to use in a term paper.

Update:
See!! Check out this “expose” video. (Link via Apropos of Something)