I thought the Iraqis were Muslims - utter Bush stupidity

[ps1074]

Former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith is claiming President George W. Bush was unaware that there were two major sects of Islam just two months before the President ordered troops to invade Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.

In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

**snip**

A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Ambassador_claims_shortly_before_invasion_Bush_0804.html

[TomInTib]

1. How do they sleep at night?

Good Dog Amighty!

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Bush also missed the memo from Iraq stating it would support Iran

should there be a war with Iran. This is something I have yet to hear with all of the MSM/cable news outlets 'reporting' on the (outrageous) demonstrations of Iraqis supporting Hezbollah.

[onager]

3. There are a lot more than "two different sects."

Wahhabis, Alawites, Sufis, etc. And just like with Xianity, the Islamic sects often have distinctive sub-sects and splinter groups who go around condemning all other believers as heathens and apostates. You can see that just by reading an average day's news from Iraq, where the various Parties Of God are currently spreading the Gospel According To The Kalashnikov.

As an atheist, I'm always glad to see that sort of energetic ecumenialism (except for the automatic weapons). If the believers ever all agree on the theology of their chosen superstition, then they'll have a lot more spare time to hunt down the real unbelievers and infidels. Like me. (That applies to the Xians as well as the Muslims.)

I'm in Egypt right now, where a form of Sufism was (and is) the most popular type of Islam in the rural areas of the country. The city of Taunta houses the tomb of a Sufi holy man which attracts several million pilgrims every year. But out there Islam merged with a lot of ancient Egyptian religious ideas and superstitions anyway. My job site is in the rural Nile Delta about 100 km from Alexandria, and you see things you just don't see in the big cities. (For one, the way funerals are conducted.)

Cairo boasts the "official" voice of Sunni Islam in Egypt, Al-Azhar University. Al-Azhar was founded in the Seventh Century, not long after Islam itself was invented. Lately the clerics at Al-Azhar have issued a number of fatwas relating to marriage and family life which are being jeered even by devout Muslims.

One fatwa said married couples should not be naked when they have sex. Another ordered married women to "suckle" domestic help. That winner was apparently derived from some hadith claiming that anyone a woman suckled automatically became a member of the family, which meant they would not steal from their employer. (A dubious idea, IMO. Every day the papers are full of crime reports about theft by employees. And employers!) The exact explanation of this fatwa was unclear to my infidel mind, and apparently to a lot of believers as well. But several wiseass male domestic employees immediately asked for another fatwa allowing them to grope as well as suckle. (No, I'm not making that up. Google and you can probably find the stories.)

When I lived in Saudi Arabia the last official word on all things religious emanated from the Supreme Islamic Council in Riyadh. Back around 1991 a Saudi holy man declared it was blasphemous to believe the earth was not flat, since that heretical idea appeared to contradict some verse or other in the Qu'ran.

[cool user name]

10. Thank you for sharing.

I cherish these stories to further my knowledge (or lack thereof).

Thank you again.

[EFerrari]

4. Shortly before we invaded Iraq for no reason, the NYT reported

that there were 20 different dissident groups in Iraq.

20 different groups.

And since the NYTs usually underreports anything that might affect Wall Street, we'll never know the real numbers.

Too bad Laura isn't a good enough teacher to motivate Junior to READ.

[Disturbed]

5. Busholini is an ignorant weasle.

He has the maturity level of a 10 yr. old and an IQ in the average range on the low end. That he is the Pres. of the US still unerves me. We have two more years with this Sock Puppet and I truely worry about how much more he and his Criminal Junta are going to screw over America.

[EFerrari]

6. I just hope we survive these firestarters. If we manage that,

it will take years to repair what they've broken. But, I'll settle for surviving them.

You have to wonder what kind of immortality they think they've bought, the way they behave. And most of the Cabal have children. It's very strange.

[rodeodance]

9. The Justice Department seems to work for him rather than for the people.

[mediaman007]

7. "The adults are in charge now." D.Cheney (2001)

[rodeodance]

8. there was quite a discussion on DU a few months ago about this comment.

Send it around to all.