Just go read it

What Every American Should Know About the Middle East. Some highlights:

  • It’s not a homogeneous region; sectarian and ethnic divisions abound. Sunni are not Shia; Arabs are not Persians.
  • Iraq is predominately Arab and Shia, but Saddam and his ruling party were from the Sunni minority.
  • Iran is NOT Arab and is almost exclusively Shia.
  • Palestine, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Jordan are Sunni and Arab

Special bonus fact that makes the invasion of Iraq even more obviously stupid: Al Qaeda is a Sunni group.

4 thoughts on “Just go read it

  1. except of course attack on Iraq was to concentrate rogue/militant forces who oppose the existence of the USA and Israel and all things not Muslim. Therefore decreasing the incidence of airplanes slamming into NYC, pentagon etc. This includes shia and shiite since both are presently attacking US military in Iraq you’re argument is moot. Seems the goal of having these attacks concentrated on military and outside of the US is working, though opinions vary.

  2. except of course attack on Iraq was to concentrate rogue/militant forces who oppose the existence of the USA and Israel and all things not Muslim.

    Er, no. The Iraq invasion was sold on two lies: that Saddam had something to do with 9/11, and that Saddam had WMDs. The bullshit “fight the terrorists over there” canard was a post-invastion, post-mission-accomplished line promulgated by the most openly mendacious administration of the last 50 years. It saddens me to see you’ve swallowed it.

    The Iraq war was sold on lie after lie after lie, and is costing us billions upon billions while buying us nothing but resentment from a part of the world already fairly hostile to us and our interests — and, thanks to our dependence on their oil, increasingly in a position to hurt us economically. We’ve abandoned Afghanistan and the hunt for those actually responsible for 9/11 with our antics in Iraq, and that’s hurting us as well.

    Therefore decreasing the incidence of airplanes slamming into NYC, pentagon etc. This includes shia and shiite since both are presently attacking US military in Iraq you’re argument is moot.

    It’s true both are attacking us NOW. Most analysts realize this is because we have invaded Iraq, and consequently both Sunni and Shia are defending their homes from invaders. Much as we would.

  3. you mean most analysts that lean towards your opinions. Fact is that those attacking US are generally funded form outside of Iraq, and yes actually many of these sources of funding come from SHOCK both Shia ans Sunni sources that fund SHOCK other terrorist activities outside of their OWN countries. The canard you so classify was presented quite explicitly by myself PRIOR to the invasion on many occasions through both public and private contact. Whether the premise of the invasion was publicly coined as a chase of WMD, or a fight on terrorism, or an oil grab, the FACT is that we have had NO further terrorist attacks on US soil, and terrorists are engaging our military not our civillians. I guess that is serendipity as Bush and company are too stupid to tie their shoes. Actually I never thought they would be able to build a true democracy in Iraq and doubt they will but I would say that sticking the US military in the middle of the Shia holy land was more than just a chase of WMD. I am not a mid east specialist but the logic is there, and well you and I may never know who is right. At least not in the next 20 years.

  4. Please consider using paragraphs, Edgar. You write for a living.

    you mean most analysts that lean towards your opinions.

    Oh, please. Do you expect people to sit quietly while they’re being occupied by a foreign power not necessarily tied to their own interests? I doubt you would. They fight us now, first and foremost, because we are IN THEIR COUNTRY. People with no religious axe to grind will take up arms if enough of their neighbors are harassed enough times by US troops, even without episodes like Abu Grahib and Haditha.

    As for funding, most of it for Wahabbist efforts comes from our good friends the House of Saud. Saddam was a contained, secular dictator more or less out of the game — a regional power at best. By invading, we created a trillion-dollar millstone around our neck that will certainly fall to chaos the minute we pull out — which we’ll have to do sooner or later, since our military can’t continue to occupy Iraq indefinitely. Failed states are great for terrorists.

    Where the terrorists WERE — Afghanistan — has been essentially ignored by this Administration since the minute our troops hit the Iraqi border. The people actually responsible for masterminding 9/11 are still at large. We’ve dropped the ball in a huge way there, and not just because we never caught OBL; read the news, man, the Taliban is coming back. What do you think might happen next?

    I’m in particular shocked and disappointed that you’d fall back to the absurd “well, we haven’t been attacked again, so it must be working!” bullshit. That dog won’t hunt. Eight years passed between the WTC bombing and 9/11; it’s much more likely that AQ & co. just aren’t that organized. And, remember, nobody in Iraq was fighting us. Until we invaded them, anyway.

    It’s also more likely that we’re radicalizing far more people than we would have otherwise (by occupying Iraq), and that we and the rest of the world will pay a price for this arrogance in the years to come. We’ve made the problem worse, not better.