Further Proof Congress is Out of Touch on the War On Terror
The incoming Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Reyes (D):
Incoming Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R):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 a l 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.
“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.
Lord have mercy on us all. This is absolutely inexcusable. All they have to do is pick up one of the many widely available (and highly accessible) books recently written about the Middle East, Islam and al-Qaeda. (All of those links, eleven in all, were found via a rudimentary Amazon search. Anything by Bernard Lewis, and Holy War Inc, by Peter Bergen come highly recommended from me.)
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