Why Can’t They All Get Along?
by digby
Last night I wrote a snarky (and controversial) post about Sandra Day O’Connor getting something wrong and I was soundly chastised for ignoring the basis of the original Kevin Drum link which was an embarrassing interview in Congressional Quarterly with the new Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes. The truth is that I just didn’t have the time last night — I’m not at home — and didn’t get a chance to fully appreciate how embarrassing that interview is. It’s a cringer.
Here’s a little excerpt:
To his credit, Reyes, a kindly, thoughtful man who also sits on the Armed Service Committee, does see the undertows drawing the region into chaos.
For example, he knows that the 1,400- year-old split in Islam between Sunnis and Shiites not only fuels the militias and death squads in Iraq, it drives the competition for supremacy across the Middle East between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia.
That’s more than two key Republicans on the Intelligence Committee knew when I interviewed them last summer. Rep. Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., and Terry Everett, R-Ala., both back for another term, were flummoxed by such basic questions, as were several top counterterrorism officials at the FBI.
I thought it only right now to pose the same questions to a Democrat, especially one who will take charge of the Intelligence panel come January. The former border patrol agent also sits on the Armed Services Committee.
Reyes stumbled when I asked him a simple question about al Qaeda at the end of a 40-minute interview in his office last week. Members of the Intelligence Committee, mind you, are paid $165,200 a year to know more than basic facts about our foes in the Middle East.
We warmed up with a long discussion about intelligence issues and Iraq. And then we veered into terrorism’s major players.
To me, it’s like asking about Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland: Who’s on what side?
The dialogue went like this:
Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?
“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about predominately?”
“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.
He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an al Qaeda club house, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.
That’s because the extremist Sunnis who make up al Qaeda consider all Shiites to be heretics.
Al Qaeda’s Sunni roots account for its very existence. Osama bin Laden and his followers believe the Saudi Royal family besmirched the true faith through their corruption and alliance with the United States, particularly allowing U.S. troops on Saudi soil.
It’s been five years since these Muslim extremists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center.
Is it too much to ask that our intelligence overseers know who they are?
This is pretty basic stuff that doesn’t require a working knowledge of Muslim theology or even history, ancient or recent. What do these people, (Reyes isn’t alone) think is meant by the term “sectarian violence?” Aren’t they even curious about which side is which and why Iraq is splintering? How can you possibly try to make sense out of what is going on without even a rudimentary knowledge of the tribal and religious factors that feed the turmoil.
I think what amazes me the most os this is familiar to anyone who has been reading newspapers since the 70’s, at least. The religious rivalries have been around for centuries, of course, but the United States has been intimately involved in mid-east politics for decades and the press has been writing about it. We had the Iran hostage crisis and Iran-Contra and Lebanon and the first Gulf War and the rise of terrorism and 9/11. There always seems to be a crisis of some sort. You do not have to be a mid-east scholar or an expert to have simply absorbed the contours of the disputes — all you had to do was read the paper regularly. And that every member of the government didn’t immediately read up on bin Laden and his movement after 9/11 is simply irresponsible.
But then, look at the president, who didn’t know the difference between the Shia and the Sunni on the eve of the invasion. Or former CIA director George Tenent who was quoted in Woodward’s book “Bush At War” saying “The Iranians may have switched sides and gone to side with the Taliban.” (It’s not impossible,of course, but under current conditions it would be shockingly unexpected. It would be on the par of the Palestinians and the Israelis suddenly deciding to ally themselves.)And then there’s this guy who shows what appears to be a pretty common understanding of the complexities of the situation:
“One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the bullshit,’” said Mr. McCain, according to Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, an invitee, and two other guests.
It’s hard to understand why so many members of the government haven’t bothered to educate themselves on this important topic, but it seems that they haven’t.
Well, in many cases, it’s hard. For some, it’s perfectly obvious:
Trent Lott, the veteran Republican senator from Mississippi, said only last September that “It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people.”
“Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion?” wondered Lott, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after a meeting with Bush.
“Why do they hate the Israelis and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference?
“They all look the same to me,” Lott said.
Update: Emptywheel at The Next Hurrah has a great idea: A pop quiz for lawmakers. I also think the Democratic leadership would do well to organize some tutorials and lectures on the middle east and require the elected officials and their staffs to attend. I’m not kidding. This is a grave problem and since the administration is led by an idiot and run by a bunch of faith based magical thinkers, it behooves the Democrats to do better.
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