Shakespeare and the Iraq war

It seems as if my post last time could lead to something after all. Shakespeare's views on war are plentiful, and I am thinking about doing a project where I would line up quotes from the Iraq War and its build-up with quotes from Shakespearean characters. (My teacher mind is practically screaming, "This is how you make Shakespeare relevant to your future high school students!")

I did a brief search for Shakespeare on Iraq, and lo and behold there is a comparison between Henry and President Bush, It is....less than flattering for Bush. As the central question surrounding Iraq is, was it a war of choice or a war of necessity, the page linked points out an illuminating passage from Henry V.

As Shakespeare has a commoner tell a disguised Henry on the night before the decisive battle at Agincourt: "If the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all, 'We died at such a place.'

Another site, titled "Your Daily Shakespeare" re-posts a letter from an Iraqi War vet to Bush and Cheney. Again, this is very critical of the war. Your Daily Shakespeare brings it to Shakespeare with a quote from Hamlet: “Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural”.

It would seem as if Shakespeare has much to say on war, and I think this could be a fun and interesting project.I will admit, I have struggled in this course. But, I think that linking Shakespeare to something else, such as war, may help. What do you all say?