why fiction is better

In the middle of watching the classic Sidney Lumet film adaptation of Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler's, "Fail-Safe" on Turner Classic Movies, I was suddenly struck by one thought. If George W. Bush were playing the Henry Fonda role of "the President," the end of the movie would have shown the entire Earth to be a smoking, radioactive desert of nuclear-blast-glazed dirt.

The contrast with today is frightening and embarrassing. Fonda's President is earnestly admitting a hideous error on the part of his administration, and is laying his own honor and that of his country on the line to demonstrate his true intentions and good faith.

And how might Mr. Bush react in that situation?


Use your own imagination.