In the uncannily prescient 1997 movie of that name, a fictitious administration in the White House enlists a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer to fabricate a war with a Balkan country to distract voters from a presidential sex scandal. A totally concocted provocative event is broadcast repeatedly on television as breaking news. It does the trick, incensing and inflaming the citizenry and producing the justification for going to war. Never mind that the episode itself never happened. …