As President Bush today signs into law a bill that suspends the writ of habeas corpus and our country continues its debate about the ethicality of the rendition and torture of terror suspects, I am once again confused by this administration's logic. According to President Bush, Americans are caught up in "...the ideological struggle of the 21st century...a struggle between good and evil." The struggle, as Bush describes it, is one that most Americans intrinsically understand since we grow up with hero stories like the X-Men, Super Man, and Star Wars. Yet, how did we know, as we watched Star Wars for the first time, that the Rebels were the heroes and that the Empire was evil? Ask any ten-year-old familiar with the story and the answer will seem obvious. We know that Darth Vader is a villain because:
1. Darth Vader chokes people in order to scare or punish them, so he must be bad.
Vader's use of the force to nearly strangle Admiral Motti firmly convinces American children that Vader, even though he looks cool, is a bad, bad dude. The choke and release technique employed by Vader is, incidentally, extremely similar to the water boarding technique currently being employed by U.S. interrogators.
2. Darth Vader tortures people, so he must be evil.
Vader's torture of Princess Leia is not only one of the darkest scenes of the original trilogy, it is also completely ineffectual - the only information that Leia gives is false. Chewy also withstands torture and even manages to repair C3PO while in a secret detention center. However, the United States remains convinced that the torture of suspected members of rebel alliances will enable us to learn where their rebel bases are.
3. Darth Vader bombs innocent civilians, so he must be super bad.
Darth Vader was right - there were guilty people on Leia's home world of Alderan who were plotting against the Empire. Attacking them, his enemies, would not have made him a villain in the eyes of American audiences. It was Vader's targeting an entire civilization because some of its members wished him ill that made Vader bad.
4. Darth Vader serves as his own judge, jury and executioner.
Where was Leia's lawyer? You guessed it - she wasn't allowed to have one.
How do we know that the Jedi Knights are good? Well, they don't choke people, torture them, put them in secret prisons, or harm civilians. The also never attack preemptively - Yoda tells Luke to never draw his weapon first.

So, if we are caught up in a battle between good and evil, like the President says, which side are we? Which side do we want to be?
-DevilBubbles