Blatantly missing (avoiding) the obvious (Score 1)

The Senate moves so slowly that it is powerless to stop aggression between member states. In "The Phantom Menace" a supra-planetary alliance, the Trade Federation (think of it as OPEC to the Galactic Republic's United Nations), invades a planet and all the Senate can agree to do is call for an investigation.

Sigh. Out of all the analogies in the world I can think of, the OPEC/UN one has to be the worst. How about these Federation/Naboo candidates (it doesn't matter who the republic is - it never really did):

1. America - Vietnam
2. America - Cuba
3. America - Nicaragua
4. America - Iraq

Oh yeah - I forgot - the land of baseball and apple pie is automatically the good guys...
The list goes on and on and on...