Santorum Messed Up his Lord of the Rings Analogy.

OK, setting aside the statement in the introduction to Tolkien's book

(In which Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings, said it was NOT an allegory for the post-war situation, and went on to describe how the plot WOULD have gone if it were true...)

There is a perfect Lord of the Rings analogy for the War in Iraq, and it is buried in the back of the book.

In the Second Age of Middle Earth, the most powerful country on earth was across the Western Sea from what is now Europe (the Shire). It was called Numenor. The lands that are now Western Europe (according to Tolkien's mythology) were occupied by Elves, and having been defeated by evil numerous times, they were tired of war and wanted to concentrate on investment in the arts and sciences. However, Sauron, who at that time was disguised as a well-groomed statesman, tricked them into making rings of power, a technology that could be used as weapons of mass destruction in the wrong hands. The Elves used their rings of power to control the weather and create a 100% emisson-free society. Numenor, however, envied the Elves for their power and high life expectancy.

Numenor was a large continent settled entirely by immigrants. It was a multicultural nation. The Gods thad initially granted all the inhabitants of Numenor (men) long life and prosperity as a reward for coming to the aid of the Elves in the Great War, thus saving civilization.

The Numenoreans had bigger buildings, better roads and a larger navy than all the other human kingdoms put together. Their liberal elite spoke Elvish and lived on the coasts, where they could communicate with Elves across the pond.

At first, the Numenoreans used their powers for good. When Sauron made his Ring of Power and defeated everybody, the Numenoreans came to the aid of the Elves and made an impressive sea landing to drive the forces of evil out of Western Middle Earth.

Around this time, the Dwarves, whom everyone had depended on for natural resources, became a closed society. An Iron Curtain went up between the Elf kingdom and the Dwarf kingdom.

However, Numenor became proud and haughty. Where at first it had built trading posts on every continent, it began to fortify all its trading posts and enslave the indigenous people of Middle Earth, exploiting its natural resources, cutting down forests and building massive stone buildings. In a form of neo-colonialism, gold and other resources flowed back to Numenor and indigenous people got little in return. The Numenoreans colonized the Haradrim (in the Middle-East of Middle-Earth) and built big bases there.

As Numenoreans got more proud and materialistic, their life expectancy and quality of life indicators declined, becoming more like those of second- and third-world nations. As they turned their back on the enlightened Elves, they grew to mistrust Elves. Elvish was banned from Numenorean schools and Elves stopped visiting Numenor. The liberal, pro-Elvish "Faithful" could only get reception on the coasts when they desired to tune their palantir to Elvish channels. The conservative, jingoistic "King's Men" spent their time in the southeastern part of Numenor and the interior, where they built large army and naval bases.

They encouraged everyone to speak a crude form of Mannish and changed their royal names from Elvish to Common Speech in order to adopt that "common touch" which so eluded the Elves on the coasts. Elvish words were changed to Common speech, in order to be patriotic.

The Numenoreans grew to distrust the Elves, who they felt were keeping them out of the Undying Lands, a source of plentiful natural resources where the men of Numenor mistakenly believed they would be able to harness the energy of that land in order to live forever (like the Elves). The Numenoreans became obsessed with living longer and ammassing wealth.

Even though Sauron controlled much of Middle Earth, Numenor was untouchable.

Finally the last King of Numenor, Ar-Pharazon, a crude and greedy man, siezed power from its rightful ruler, Tar-Miriel, one of the Faithful; after a prolonged succession dispute which was narrowly decided in favor of Ar-Pharazon.

Ar-Pharazon went about bankrupting Numenor in order to construct the greatest army the world had ever known and sieze the Middle-Eastern part of Middle Earth from Sauron in an unprovoked attack, using bases it had built in the Gulf of Umbar. Ar-Pharazon insisted that Sauron must not remain at large so long as he possessed Rings of Power.

Ar-Pharazon's army was so large that none could stand before it.
It included hundreds of armored Oliphants, giant battleships and a coalition of vassal nations. Even Sauron, who possessed the One Ring
of mass destruction, was no match for Numenor's army. Sauron's armies saw it coming and fled, deserting Sauron.

Sauron feigned defeat and surrendered to Ar-Pharazon personally, who had a thing against Sauron because he had killed one of Ar-Pharazon's ancestors. So Ar-Pharazon and Sauron hatched a mutual plan. Sauron would be brought back to Numenor in chains and spirited away to an undisclosed location, where he would advise Ar-Pharazon on the whereabouts of enemies, using surveillance tactics that Sauron had perfected with his Ring.

Sauron slowly gained the confidence of Ar-Pharazon and became an adviser to the King's family. He convinced Ar-Pharazon to round up all the Faithful and imprison Tar-Miriel. Ar-Pharazon was aging and concerned about his legacy. He wanted to sieze the natural resources of the Undying Lands from the hated Elves.

Sauron convinced Ar-Pharazon to amend the Numenorean constitution, which practised a form of Deism, and repudiate all other gods except Morgoth, the god of evil. Sauron appointed himself High Priest of Numenor and turned it into a theocratic state.

Finally, he convinced Ar-Pharazon to send his vast Navy overseas and invade yet ANOTHER country, the Undying Lands, in a completely unprovoked attack on a large realm surrounded by high mountains which was previously off-limits to Numenorean Influence.

The Faithful saw the ships leaving westward and knew the attack was coming. They tried to warn everyone, but no one would listen.

The Gods, to whom Numenor was deeply indebted, were not pleased. They sunk Numenor and overthrew the Numenorean civilization, which collapsed entirely. Only the Faithful survived by escaping to friendly progressive kingdoms in the northern and Western Middle Earth.

I'm hoping that Stephen Colbert does more on this issue, too (he's quite a devoted LOTR fan, and pointed out after Santorum's speech that according to the Senator's reasoning, the USA had to be Mordor!)

Tolkien, who had survived the trenches of the Great War, definitely had an understanding of what geopolitics and the thirst for power could do to societies -- even ones which were cultured and professed to be democratic.