Cheney Should TiVo 'Heroes'

With the ratings on Jack Bauer's "24" fading almost as fast as those of George Bush's White House, it's time for the principals in the war in Iraq to start studying "Heroes"—the most-watched show on television this year—writes Salon's Juan Cole. In fact, think of Heroes as a sci-fi corrective to the whole the Bush-Cheney approach to terrorism. 

Bush's War on Terror hunts external and clearly discernible terrorists, but the characters in "Heroes" agonize over the evil within and refuse to view any culture as beyond redemption. Bush warns of extremist states, but in "Heroes" terrorism is a universal and psychological problem. Finally, Cole notes, "Heroes" chooses multilateral efforts to fight terror, as a certain duo now no doubt wished they had tried a little earlier. (More terrorism stories.)