The Muddle East
EDB at Anecdotes from a Banana Republic in Beirut talks about Dubious Militants & the Violated Sanctity of the Bathroom. Her life is again disrupted by explosions and gunfire in Lebanon and the misinformation of the Lebanese government.
She remembered the Seymour Hersh article in The New Yorker [03/05/07], The Redirection, that mentioned the raise of Fatah al Islam, whom she calls a “kooky Salafist group”.
While you should read the entire article, the short form is Cheney and the Saudis are trying to offset the gains made by Iran as a result of US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and one of their moves was to have the Saniora government invite members of various “kooky Salafist groups” to Lebanon to offset Hezbollah.
Nicholas Blanford, correspondent for The Times in Lebanon has a Q&A: explaining the violence in Lebanon that covers some of the same ground. These people are Sunni Salafists, they don’t work for or with Shi’ites or secular Alawites like the Syrian government.
Juan Cole of Informed Comment is a bit annoyed by the Cheney-Saudi misinformation campaign, as expressed in: I suppose I have to link to this silly article by poor Simon Tisdall in of all places, The Guardian.
Simon is reporting on the absurd: Iran’s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq.
Real slowly, Iran doesn’t need to do anything. The Sunni insurgents are killing US troops – Iranians are Shi’ia. That the US at this point refuses to comprehend the religious differences and the importance of those differences, shows why Iraq is such a disaster. The Shrubbery’s national security people and supporters have to be the only ones on the planet who don’t get it.
2 comments
Oh come on, you don’t expect me to know the difference between all these darkies, do you? After all, they all look alike, just like them darkies in Selma did back when us peckerwoods sic’ed our dogs on them. Sheesh. You liberals and your insistence on seeing human beings rather than dung. What next, you think Mexicans should be treated like human beings rather than as slaves to be used and discarded once we’re done using them? Or (hahah!) that all votes should be counted? What are you, some kinda commie?!
— Badtux the Republican Penguin
That about sums up the Republican Senate.