Eazy E and the Surge

There's a line in "Straight Outta Compton" where Eazy E says:

"But I'm smart, lay low, creep a while
And when I see a punk pass, I smile"

And that's what seems to have happened with the surge in Iraq. For all the talk of a drop in sectarian killings in April, they are on the rise again this month. What happens is of course, like street thugs, the insurgents of every stripe know when the heat is on. They lay low, creep a while, just like Eazy says. As soon as the US troops pass by it's back to kidnappings and sectarian honour killings, and whatever else can be done to visit misery on others.

Put another way, the Sunni-Shi'a thing is over a thousand years old, no one is going to forget it during a six month troop surge.

Complete Ignorance of the Middle East

Once again we have a right-winger demonstrating just that quality. Andrew Sullivan linked to Michael Ledeen's suggestion that Iran is harboring bin Laden.

Once again people, why is there a civil war in Iraq?

A: Sunnis and Shi'as are engulfed in sectarian violence - there are centuries-old grievances between the two sects.

Okay, so what sect does the Iranian government belong to?

A: They are Shi'a.

And bin Laden?

A: He's a Sunni.

So why, when both al Qaeda and the Iranian government consider each other heretics, does anyone think they would work together? Let's look at Ledeen's own logic:

"it certainly fits; the Iranians love "disappeared" leaders. Their messianic leader is the 'vanished Imam;' they "disappeared" bin Laden after he was routed from Afghanistan"

Oh, so I guess that the Iranians are also working with Jimmy Hoffa and Amelia Earhart. Ideology doesn't matter, theology doesn't matter, Ledeen's figured it out, the Iranians just love anyone who has "disappeared" by some means. Who listens to this guy? Moreover, who does not understand how crucially, crucially important the Sunni-Shi'a divide is to understanding the Middle East after the past four years?

Profiles In Tastefulness: Blogging Tories Edition

It's all over the news, but in case you missed it, there was a bomb attack on bus full of elite Iranian soldiers. Such tactics are often decried as illegal or immoral, particularly by conservatives. However, when such tactics are used on the Iranians, at least one Blogging Tory finds it hilarious! Get a load of this zinger:

"Things haven't been so Sunni lately."

It's funny because it plays on the word "sunny" and the name of one sect of Islam. Did you see how that works? Oh what laughter!

Wait a sec, Sunni extremists in south-eastern Iran? Doesn't that border on Afghanistan? Hey isn't that where Canadian soldiers are locking horns with those Sunni extremists known as the Taliban? I wonder how the Blogging Tories would feel if it came out that the bomb used in Iran was of a similar design to those used in Kandahar. Kind of ruins the joke, eh?