Iraq and 'Dune'

An interesting concept in the Frank Hebert sci-fi story 'Dune' is that of hydraulic despotism - he who controls the fate of a substance controls it entirely.

While hydraulic despotism is not the perfect way to describe Iraq's oil, it's pretty close.

Notice that a key tactic of the Iraqi insurgency is the non-stop sabotage of oil pipe lines.

If the oil does not flow from Iraq the US will not reach it's war aims there.

It's a good paralel, but that's just about it. I mean it will never get to that amplitude and complexity.

I'm going to quote someone whose name i couldn't find, but here we go:
An interesting similarity to the present time (2004)
The defeated Caesar is called "Shaddam". The world in which the battle takes place is called "Arrakis". The battle is for the control of the "Spice m'lange". Now just change the name "Shaddam" to "Saddam", "Arrakis" to "Iraq" and the "Spice M'lange" to "oil". The most surprising element is a new young Shi'ite leader in Iraq whose followers call the "Mahdi the Muslim Messiah."…
Considering that he was licensed in eastern philosophies, Herbert knew exactly what he was talking about when writing about Islam.
It's an interesting start, and it's prophetic sides are a questionable concidence i think.

There's actually another thread on ATS about the Iraq/Dune comparison, believe it or not.