Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days

Well.

I've just read the first book in the "Left Behind" series.

Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days (Left Behind No. 1)
It was interesting (and it also was very good at putting me to sleep). The interesting parts are:

1> The exploration of the "born-again" experience. I can relate to this on some levels, but still find the Fundamentalist Christian context very foreign and uncomfortable.

2> The question of How much does this series (and the movement surrounding it) have to do with our President's irrational fixation with Iraq? I've only read the first of this set of novels, but it looks as if the Anti-Christ and his world-government are setting up in Babylon (50 km s. of Baghdad, Iraq), and the characters are all set up to fight his evil influence and replace it with the Kingdom of Jesus.

I thought Bush's fixation had to do with his oil background, but this, crazy as it is, fits the facts better. The man (and how many around him) is living a super-hero religious fantasy. And thousands upon thousands of Iraqi people are dying because of it.