Page 20 - Star Wars Insider #188
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THE SKYWALKER SAGA
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grown up in a time of huge social This distrust in the industry of 02
upheaval domestically. They still war plays out on an epic scale in
harbored suspicions of the U.S. Revenge of the Sith. The Republic’s
government, which had raised a adversary is named a Confederacy
banner for equality and justice of Independent Systems, but
elsewhere but resisted the claims of their actions are controlled by
civil rights and anti-war protestors a conglomeration of corporate
within its own borders. entities: the Trade Federation, the
In the absence of the Russian- Techno Union, the Retail Caucus,
U.S. stalemate, political uncertainty the InterGalactic Banking Clan,
opened the door to smaller despots the Commerce Guild, and the
to make their power grabs, such Corporate Alliance.
as Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor
whose invasion of Kuwait in 1990 rallied the U.S. into World War II,
threatened America’s interests, even though the Hawaiian Islands
particularly in oil. President George are more than 2,000 miles from
H.W. Bush rallied a worldwide the continental United States. The
coalition of forces to drive Hussein 1990s saw a series of major terrorist 03
out of Kuwait. While some would attacks on U.S. soil, including the
view the military operation as World Trade Center in New York
a necessity, others believed that City (1993), the federal building
the enormous military industrial in Oklahoma City (1995), the
complex (which had grown during Olympics in Atlanta (1996), and—
the Cold War) was influencing as Lucas was completing Episode
political motivations for profit. II—the September 11 attacks in
2001. Public agencies used these
incidents to expand methods
Distrust in the to surveil and track suspected
terrorists, sparking a public outcry
industry of war against invasions of civil liberties
plays out on an and politicians overstepping
their mandated boundaries that
epic scale in continues to this day.
What with the Whitewater
Revenge of the Sith. scandal and Monica Lewinsky
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