Whiskey Bar points out this rather interesting paragraph from a Daily Telegraph article.
White House aides have said they consider the Lebanon crisis to be a “leadership moment” for Mr Bush and an opportunity to proceed with his post-September 11 plan to reshape the Middle East by building Sunni Arab opposition to Shi’a terrorism. Yesterday Mr Bush cited the role of Iran and Syria in providing help to Hezbollah.
Does this mean the US now supports Iraq’s Sunnis and are at war with Iraq’s Iran backed Shi’as?
As Billmon points out this may be just a case of shoddy writing, but I’ve encountered other examples of this sentiment a couple of times over the past week or so.
All it means is as of last week, Bush actually understands there are Sunnis and there are Shias.
Beyond that, who knows?
What!? There are different kinds of Muslims!?
Who’da thunk it.
/sarcasm
i think the sunni muslims sound happier.
This blogger writes: So now Israel is fighting Shias on behalf of Sunnis? There might be some truth to this, given the tacit official support of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. But since when is Israel Saudi Arabia’s regional SWAT team?
I also did a “tin-foil” diary on this at Prog Blog a short while ago.
In that Whiskey Bar piece, Billmon writes: Is that why America crushed the most powerful Sunni regime in the neighborhood? Is that why Democracy Boy cheered as an Iran-friendly government took power in Baghdad? Does it explain why the Iraqi Interior Ministry was turned over to the tender mercies of an Iranian-backed militia movement? There are Sunnis and there are Sunnis! In fact, Billmon provides the answer to his questions when he refers to Saddam’s regime as “the most powerful Sunni regime”. That’s why he was taken out.
It was known that Saddam dreamt of becoming a modern-day Saladin, much to the chagrin of Saudi Arabia’s Bandar who hates his guts. The thing is Bandar himself is aching to be if not a modern-day Saladin, at least the leader of “Sunni-dom”! I would imagine that the time is about ripe for the Saudi James Bond to embark on what I suspect is the final lap.
Fascinating article here even if it is published in Rupert Murdoch’s neoconservative Weekly Standard.
I can’t believe they’ve destroyed Lebanon. The most beautiful country in the Middle-East.
Those people work long-term, TG. All of them are millenarist. I guess they figure in a couple of decades, we will have forgotten about it all.
And Israel needs land and water. Everything else is just television!
“And Israel needs land and water. Everything else is just television! ”
This is the best post I’ve read on the whole Blog this week, FurGaia!
Tell it like it is and make it art doing it.
arthurdecco,
I will second that opinion!
Personally, I’m of the never-attribute-to-malice-what-you-can-safely-attribute-to- stupidity school of international diplomacy. It’s not that the US is involved in some elaborate scheme to overthrow the middle east, it’s just that they really don’t know what they’re doing. If they knew what they were doing Iraq wouldn’t be a quagmire. But it is, so they don’t.
I totally agree. Most bad behaviour is bad not because it’s evil, but because it’s stupid.
Re Israel and water: What can you expect from people who run water into the desert to prettify highway intersections? Seriously, that was the most ridiculous thing I saw in Isreal. A country where it doesn’t even rain in the summer.
Ah, here are links for all who are interested to read on the subject.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/scarcity.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Environment/water.html
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=6031
http://nyjtimes.com/cover/05-06-05/WhatRetreatMeansForIsraeliWater.htm
‘Particularly in the Middle East, water can never be ignored. So it is surprising that in all the discussions for and against disengagement from Gaza as a first step in withdrawing from (some/most/all of) Samaria and Judea (the West Bank), water has been mentioned so rarely.’
Thanks AD and BM.
Merci for the links as well, which are too important though to leave in a comment IMO.
FurGaia,
You are quite welcome.
I try not to blast the blagh with quotes when links are available. Those who are sincerely interested in a subject do this weird thing called personal research. Obviously you do. Welcome BTW!
Ultimately, Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Need’ becomes the real reasons people do what they do. Water is an esential and I thank you for bringing it to all our attentions.
Hi Bill,
Follow-up here.
Ciao!
Anonymous,
Thanks…Interesting to say the least! *S*