Hehe. Van The Films They Dare Not Make Today.

Okay, here’s the trailer for the feel-good movie of the summer:

    They were proud desert warriors, poor but God-fearing — occupied and exploited by heathen armies and foreign cartels for the fuel beneath their sand.  Too weak to attack their enemies’ high-tech military head on, they resisted through surprise raids and bombings.  The imperialist oppressors called them savages — even terrorists — but they knew themselves to be freedom-fighters.  And that one day God would send a messiah to unite their tribes and lead them in jihad.

    No, not Osama bin Laden.  Not any current Arab leader.  And not even Lawrence of Arabia.

    I’m talking about Muad’Dib, the messiah in Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel, Dune (1965).  It is Maud’Dib who leads the Fremen tribes in jihad against a spice-hungry Empire.  Spice is the fuel of the Empire.  Without spice, interstellar travel — and trade — is impossible.  Without spice, the galactic economy will collapse.

   “The spice must flow!” is the cry repeated throughout this tale.  Along with, “The one who controls the spice, controls the universe!”  And in all the galaxy, there is only one spice source — the desert wasteland planet named Dune.

    Maud’Dib defeats the Empire by taking the spice source hostage, and threatening to blow it up, which would plunge all civilization into a new dark age.  Talk about terrorism!  (Anyone recall Hussein’s threat to blow up the Kuwaiti oil fields?)