{"id":3883,"date":"2006-10-18T13:51:09","date_gmt":"2006-10-18T18:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=3883"},"modified":"2006-10-18T12:04:43","modified_gmt":"2006-10-18T17:04:43","slug":"oh_whats_the_di","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/18\/oh_whats_the_di\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, What’s The Diff?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Terrific op-ed<\/a> in yesterday’s New York Times by Jeff Stein, national security editor of Congressional Quarterly. He’s been conducting a little experiment…<\/p>\n\n

FOR the past several months, I\u00c2\u2019ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: \u00c2\u201cDo you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?\u00c2\u201d

\nA \u00c2\u201cgotcha\u00c2\u201d question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don\u00c2\u2019t think it\u00c2\u2019s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I\u00c2\u2019m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who\u00c2\u2019s on what side today, and what does each want?<\/blockquote>\n\n

Here are some of the answers:<\/p>\n\n

A few weeks ago, I took the F.B.I.\u00c2\u2019s temperature again. At the end of a long interview, I asked Willie Hulon, chief of the bureau\u00c2\u2019s 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. \u00c2\u201cYes, sure, it\u00c2\u2019s right to know the difference,\u00c2\u201d he said. \u00c2\u201cIt\u00c2\u2019s important to know who your targets are.\u00c2\u201d

\nThat was a big advance over 2005. So next I asked him if he could tell me the difference. He was flummoxed. \u00c2\u201cThe basics goes back to their beliefs and who they were following,\u00c2\u201d he said. \u00c2\u201cAnd the conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shia and the difference between who they were following.\u00c2\u201d <\/blockquote>\n\n

A member of the House intelligence committee:<\/p>\n\n

Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: \u00c2\u201cOne\u00c2\u2019s in one location, another\u00c2\u2019s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don\u00c2\u2019t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.\u00c2\u201d<\/blockquote>\n\n

Another committee member:<\/p>\n\n

\u00c2\u201cDo I?\u00c2\u201d she asked me. A look of concentration came over her face. \u00c2\u201cYou know, I should.\u00c2\u201d She took a stab at it: \u00c2\u201cIt\u00c2\u2019s a difference in their fundamental religious beliefs. The Sunni are more radical than the Shia. Or vice versa. But I think it\u00c2\u2019s the Sunnis who\u00c2\u2019re more radical than the Shia.\u00c2\u201d<\/blockquote>\n\n

Now we’re not talking theology. Stein’s asking his repondents who’s who right now. Do they know that Hezbollah is Shiite? That Osama bin Laden is Sunni? Stein says that some of his interviewees are able to answer these questions easily. But all too many, he says, “don’t have a clue.”<\/p>\n\n

“How can they do their job,” Stein asks, “without knowing the basics?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terrific op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times by Jeff Stein, national security editor of Congressional Quarterly. He’s been conducting a little experiment… FOR the past several months, I\u00c2\u2019ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,3,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}