Frodo or Gollum: U.S. Foreign Policy and Iraq

Naeem Inayatullah (in the Ithacan, Novermber 20, 2003)

Realist international relations theory and J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings share a

concern about the corruptive influence of power. Characters such as Gandalf, Elrond,

and Aragorn recognize that power corrupts and then enslaves its users. More important,

they refuse the ring even under threat of attack because they realize that pure intentions

are not enough. They are able to imagine that the disaster created by the combination of

their good intentions and the ring’s power might be worse than what the malevolence of

Mordor can generate. As we are often reminded, the road to hell is paved with good

intentions.

In a startling bit of candor prior to the first Gulf War, George Bush made clear that not

Kuwaiti sovereignty but rather oil, the lifeblood of “our economy, ” was really at stake.

Today, in what appears to be a reversal, the regime of George W. Bush proclaims that the

purpose of today’s war is to teach Iraq and the Middle East how to create democracy. I

believe it is a mistake to think of this idealism as a mere cover for oil. Indeed, the purer

intentions of teaching may be the greater danger.

The problem with the teaching imperative is that it usually cannot confront the doubt that

teaching may not be possible. Even though empire can bring great things, including

perhaps democracy, its teaching is forced. When others are disallowed the possibility of

making mistakes they cannot learn from their own experience. Too often, the net result

of imposed teaching is deep resentment.

In North America we often underestimate the depth and meaning of this world-wide

resentment. It can be so pervasive that people sometimes want to destroy the giver, the

teacher, the superpower, the empire – even at the cost of their own lives. Anticipating

such a death, I sometimes think, gives some lives more meaning than all the gifts of

empire. Live free or die, some might say.

But resistance is not the only reason why the teaching imperative is so perilous.

Teaching backed by (super-) power can overwhelm the soul of the teacher, the empire

builder. If we let ourselves we can imagine that greatness causes suffering in the teacher.

The greater the greatness the more it is imbued with emptiness. The bigger the empire

and the larger the burden of teaching, the more lonely is the teacher. One is indeed the

loneliest number, as Gollum would attest.

The fellowship of the ring fights on two fronts. It confronts Mordor, but in a manner that

does not fuel the far greater threat -- power itself. Frodo’s mission is nothing less than to

destroy the ring; he uses power to undermine power. Do we emulate Frodo in our daily

lives? To what degree does U. S. foreign policy create a fellowship against the ring of

power? How do we calculate the benefits of a lonely empire against those of an

international fellowship? Even as we applaud Frodo, might it be that we are more akin to

Gollum?