so the american soldiers get to be stormtroopers. who gets to be Vader? The Emperor? Bush couldn't hang with either roll, Cheney and Papa Bush maybe?

Is it just me or is this country becoming increasingly militarized?

Abe, I was never much into Star Wars, so difficult for me to say who fits best. What it does conjure is memories of other films, like when they discuss Star Wars in Clerks or Dark Vader in Toy Story II.

Which is a roundabout way to hint that if Black Hawk Down has influenced the media department of the pentagon and film directors/producers have recently been involved with the army in storyboarding possible terrorist attack scenarios, haven't the confines between film and fact been totally blurred?

And yet this is no fiction. And if I think back to the CNN clip you pointed to a few days ago (http://www.abstractdynamics.org/archives/2003/12/10/low_points_in_american_history.html) and I sum it to Hollywood then all that comes to mind is that the military is producing snuff movies.

And Joerg, I dont think it is only you...