Legends, Tall Tales, Holy Warriors and Cartoons

Did a smoking dragon ever exist in that English tale of Saint George, or was one conveniently invented? Fire-breathing dragons, like shadowy terrorist organizations, exist to create enemies and thus "heroic" forceful responses. Without witches and demons and fiery dragons, no courageous holy warrior could rescue the fair maiden or deliver the peasants from infidels.

Indeed, the whole reportage of the alleged dragon reminds me of a black operation--or the story line from a comic book." Nothing was safe from this terrible monster. One by one the sheep and oxen belonging to the city were devoured by him, and when the people had no more food to give him, he crawled towards the city, and his dreadful fiery breath warned them that he was coming closer and that they would soon be carried off, one by one, and devoured."

The legend of George and the dragon sounds like a prank, or a clever ruse carried out by the king's men to intimidate the commoner and peasant, and thus consolidate more power. Because, no dragon meant no Saint George. No war against terror meant no George the War President. No war meant no re-election. No Osama The Dragon, forever terrorizing peaceful people everywhere, means no never-ending war. Without the war, a war without any foreseeable end, no enormous profits or secret agendas or consolidation of power is possible.

Not surprising that so many English-speaking adults and children love Harry Potter. We live in an age of magicians, warlocks and witches, most of whom live in the capitol cities of all the so-called civilized nations. More distressing than this fantasy worship is the child-like faith of the governed, simple folks who love fairy tales with happy endings, wholly unaware they're living in one without that likelihood.

How do we differ from the Middle-Ages, when popes clamored for "holy" crusades against a culture that few knew anything about. And who was this particular pope but a man, as Henry David Thoreau described the builder of the pyramids, "some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs?"

Pope Urban II instigated a foreign war (an urban war?) in Jerusalem to accomplish a number of agendas, just as our latter-day crusader/emperor instigates various foreign wars, not far from the same, medieval scene-of-the-crime.

One real life dragon slayer believes we've already been hoodwinked into another crusade--without public knowledge--to slay another alleged dragon. Scott Ritter reports, in Al Jazeerah (since our media-evil press allows little dissent), that his predicted June attack on Iran is already occurring.

"President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran," said the former US Marine officer.

"Most Americans, together with the mainstream American media, are blind to the tell-tale signs of war, " said Ritter. "We now know that the war had started much earlier . . . had already been under way since June 2005, when the CIA began its programme of MEK-executed terror bombings in Iran."

Wars and the rumors of wars are like dragons and the rumors of dragons. They're meant to inspire fear and terror in the populace. What follows is a convenient suspension of liberties, a steady consolidation of power, a suspension of unwelcome dissent, and a frantic call-to-arms. Dragons, like terrorists, cannot be dealt with diplomatically but must be destroyed by armies commanded by armor-clad knights.

But if we live in a nation presently enamored with fantasy figures, of boy sorcerers and super heroes, of exorcists and poltergeists, of zen masters and Jedi warriors, then we might as well look at a cartoon for guidance.

Shrek changed how we look at dragons and indeed, how we look at kings. "Do you think he's compensating for something," Shrek observed astutely, when viewing Lord Farquaad's castle. Indeed, George Bush--our own Lord Farquaad--is a man equally calculating, equally compensating, a very small man of very narrow vision, enclosed by the huge castle on the Potomac. The dragons he would have others slay (otherwise afraid to slay them himself), however, are less dragonly when we hear or see their side of the story.

But the Merlins of the media, the spin alchemists, who possess even less independence of mind then Lord Farquaad's mirror, encouraged this dragon hunt though it may eventually wreck the kingdom, creating more dragons than it captures.

George Bush, looking more and more like Lord Farguaad everyday, and less and less like Saint George, needs all the myth-makers he can assemble and still they might not be enough. Perhaps if only he could only cast himself as Harry Potter or Peter Parker he might succeed with a bit more humility. But alas, real life isn't like a religious myth, cartoon or a comic book.