Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?

The Sunni's and Shiite's are killing each other in Iraq. People who understood Iraq BEFORE the the war started warned that this would happen if the U.S. did not prepare for it. 5 years after 9-11 and over 3 years of war in Iraq shouldn't all members of Congress have a handle on who these people are? There are people running this Congress that don't have a clue of even the basics yet. Op-Ed Contributor Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? By JEFF STEIN Published: October 17, 2006 Washington FOR the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want? After all, wouldn’t British counterterrorism officials responsible for Northern Ireland know the difference between Catholics and Protestants? In a remotely similar but far more lethal vein, the 1,400-year Sunni-Shiite rivalry is playing out in the streets of Baghdad, raising the specter of a breakup of Iraq into antagonistic states, one backed by Shiite Iran and the other by Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states. ....................................... Take Representative Terry Everett, a seven-term Alabama Republican who is vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence. “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?” I asked him a few weeks ago. Mr. Everett responded with a low chuckle. He thought for a moment: “One’s in one location, another’s in another location. No, to be honest with you, I don’t know. I thought it was differences in their religion, different families or something.” To his credit, he asked me to explain the differences. I told him briefly about the schism that developed after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and how Iraq and Iran are majority Shiite nations while the rest of the Muslim world is mostly Sunni. “Now that you’ve explained it to me,” he replied, “what occurs to me is that it makes what we’re doing over there extremely difficult, not only in Iraq but that whole area.” So after all this time NOW HE LEARNS THAT THIS IS GOING TO BE DIFFICULT!!!! He is the vice chairman of the House intelligence subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence!!! W T F!!!! Read More At The New York Times