In the summer of 2003 President George W. Bush waged a military campaign in Iraq with false justifications and fabricated documents that were used as evidence to further his war agenda. Throughout literature there are uncanny resemblances to this moment in current events. Ranging from the dictatorial King Creon in Sophocles" "Antigone" to the Eighth circle of falsifiers in Dante Alighieri's "Inferno" to More's resistance against King Henry VIII in "A Man For All Seasons". All of these stories in literature and more contain many similarities to the situation that is occurring in Iraq. Many of these stories may have been disturbing or righteous inspirations to many individuals that had their part in the war. May it have been support to enter into the military fray or resistance and protest against the concept of war in Iraq, these stories can not but help but mirror the issue in several different viewpoints.
On the aspect that the majority of the nation did not support the war, "Antigone" fits this very well. When Haemon was trying to convince his father King Creon to not punish and execute Antigone for her rebellion, he states that the whole of Thebes has the same opinion that she "deserves a crown of gold" for her actions because she was respecting the ritualistic burial rites of the gods. But Creon ignored his plea of reason and stubbornly stuck with his decision against the will of the people. Haemon then explains that if he does this the people will no longer feel that they will be able state their grievances with Creon's decisions as a ruler. Creon counterpoints this that "a king is ruler and lord of his kingdom." This points out that Creon thinks that despite what people may say a king's decision is infallible. Bush demonstrated this by calling the hundreds of thousands of protesters "a rabble of focus groups". Also his decision went against the major opinion of the international community who were against the war from the start.