I agree wholeheartedly with Blackhawk's view on the Jedi, and I really like the idea of the Clone Wars (I still think there needs to clearly be multiple "wars," otherwise why call them the Clone WARS instead of Clone War?) parallelling the World Wars.

I think it would be a great idea for Clone War I to parallel World War I, where the future Emperor secretly sets off an ostensibly small event that snowballs into a galactic conflict that ends in a victory for the Republic. Then, Clone War II should show the Republic slowly degrading into the Empire, where they take a role similar to the Nazis in WWII. Thus, the Galactic Civil War could be a continuation of Clone War II, though that ended decisively in a victory for the Empire/Republic - the Rebellion could be remnants of the opposing force of Clone War II.

The Republic should also be fashioned similarly to the Republic of Rome, and the Emperor should (similarly to AOTC) be appointed by the Senate as an emergency leader during one of the Clone Wars. Except once he's in power, instead of being Caesar-ish, he should be more Hitler-ish, with the extermination and discreditation of the Jedi being similar to the Holocaust.