October 18, 2006

The Eye of Mordor is Upon You

According to rick santorum:

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.”

James Joyner notes:

I’ve got to admit, I’d never thought of it that way before. . . .

.....

It increasingly appears that Santorum’s Yoda-like wisdom will have to come from the sidelines,...

There are a lot of other folks that will not see this quite the way that santorum would like and, unfortunately, his wisdom is anything but Yoda-like.

The eyes that were drawn to Iraq 5 years ago pretty much all lived in Washington, DC. So I suppose this makes sense if santorum is equating Mordor with the US.

Many of us also would prefer that those eyes do not dwell often on the United States. Alas, even as they have put Americans in harms way, created chaos and death in Iraq, allowed Americans to torture others, etc., their eyes have not strayed far from home. They have had time to bring us the patriot act, the military commisions act and a myriad of other encroachments on the Constitution, liberty and freedom of the American people.

Update (10/20): Colbert agrees that santorum must be equating Morder with the US.

Posted by Steve on October 18, 2006
Comments

Do you think he really read the books, or is he referring to the movie version? The visual he refers to sounds closer to the movie....

Posted by Mountain Girl at October 20, 2006 3:56 PM

Food point!

He may have read the books but probably so long ago that the movie imagery is what he remembers.

Posted by Steve at October 20, 2006 5:22 PM
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