Last night, I went to a discussion between Scott Ritter, the former U.N top weapons inspector in Iraq, and investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. They were discussing the unthinkable: the gathering drumbeat on the part of this Administration, and a number of Democrats, for war against Iran. There was a lot in the discussion worth reporting but the one piece that stuck with me was a comment by Ritter that I had thought for a long time: Americans do not want to, or cannot, distinguish one Muslim country from another. Too many Americans, and their political leadership, have a built-in filter for anything that is tagged as “Muslim” which equals to them “bad” or suspect. It makes it impossible, then, for our country to be able to evaluate real information and intentions.
And this morning, almost as a follow on to last night, a colleague of mine, Jeff Stein, has a very important piece on The New York Times op-ed page, entitled “Can You Tell A Sunni From A Shiite?” Well, the short answer is, that many of our political and INTELLIGENCE leaders cannot–which is entirely frightening. Here’s a snippet which captures the point:

A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.’s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau’s new national security branch, whether he thought that it was important for a man in his position to know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites. “Yes, sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he said. “It’s important to know who your targets are.”

That was a big advance over 2005. So next I asked him if he could tell me the difference. He was flummoxed. “The basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following,” he said. “And the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shia and the difference between who they were following.”

O.K., I asked, trying to help, what about today? Which one is Iran — Sunni or Shiite? He thought for a second. “Iran and Hezbollah,” I prompted. “Which are they?”

He took a stab: “Sunni.”

Wrong.

Al Qaeda?

“Sunni.”

Right.

Need I repeat this: the fucking chief of the FBI’s bureau NEW national security branch cannot distinguish between Sunnis and Shiites. And we wonder why our leaders can’t get this straight, too. I’m sorry: this is scary, outrageous and why is this guy in charge?