The Linear Canvas

One of the things that the Iraq invasion and occupation has taught me is the difference between the Muslim groups that are involved in the struggle for dominance in the region of the Middle East the United Sates is currently stuck in. I never would have known that there were any differences between them at all. I guess I should have realized this knowing that Christian groups have the same distrust of each other’s motives. There’s nothing like a little religion to alienate humans from one another.

Recently the Columbus Dispatch ran a cartoon by Michael Ramirez on their op/ed page that was making fun of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s request to lay a wreath at the site of the World Trade Center. I have a couple of opinions about this, but the cartoonist’s obvious ignorance about the significance of the request was apparent. A little general knowledge or a quick read of the back pages of the first section of the Dispatch, where all the important news is hidden, would have helped this person understand why I just stood and shook my head after reading this supposedly “humorous” editorial commentary.

In the nineteen-eighties our friend, Secular Iraq, was at war with our enemy, Shiite Iran. Our “other” enemy, the Communist USSR, invaded and occupied Taliban Afghanistan. With the help of our friends, Sunni Al-Qaeda, Communist USSR withdrew from Taliban Afghanistan because it had become such a quagmire, wasting thousands of lives and billions of rubles. Interestingly the entire Communist USSR collapsed and ceased to exist just a few years later, no doubt in part because of the crushing debt and dissatisfaction with the misadventure that Taliban Afghanistan had become. Those conflicts ended after many years, billions in war profits, and much destruction.

It is also possible Communist USSR was partly in Taliban Afghanistan to distract the Soviet citizens from the reality that was their lives.

When the United States was attacked by Sunni Al-Qaeda, mostly from Sunni Saudi Arabia, our friends, on September 11, 2001, we attacked Sunni Al-Qaeda in Taliban Afghanistan. One of Sunni Al-Qaeda’s stated reasons to attack the United States was to remove the US military from Sunni Saudi Arabia. Giving in to OPEC and/or Sunni Al-Qaeda pressure, the US did withdraw its military from Sunni Saudi Arabia shortly thereafter.

Then for whatever reason we were given, we attacked Secular Iraq, later installing Shiite Iraq leaders to run the country. Shiite Iran was very pleased with this turn of events and naturally began some assistance to its neighbor and religious brothers in the now Shiite Iraq. Sunni Al Qaeda followed the United States to Iraq from Taliban Afghanistan and from Sunni Saudi Arabia. Then it began attacks on the US and both Sunni and Shiite Iraqi’s. The Sunni Iraqi’s started attacking Shiite Iraqi’s, and vice-versa. Both attack US troops and contractors. Sunni Iraqi’s reportedly attack US interests more often than the Shiite Iraqi’s do.

Now there is a drumbeat for war by the original Iraq invaders, the Corporatist Neo-Cons. They have empowered all sides in this conflict and could reap billions in war profits with a United States attack on Shiite Iran. I believe there is also a possibility of a declaration of war by the Shiite Iraq congress against the US if that happens. I am not sure it would be a real threat, but how embarrassing would that be?

Sunni Al-Qaeda attacked the US, not Shiite Iran. The Sunni Al-Qaeda leader has alternatively been wanted dead or alive or whose whereabouts have not been much of a concern to the US president. Any discussion or op/ed cartoon that tries to link Sunni Al-Qaeda and Shiite Iran through the 2001 World Trade Center events is blatant propaganda. It certainly is not based on any evidence, just conflation of two independent sects in the Muslim world whose differences few in the US understand.

Or is it also possible the United States will attack Shiite Iran to distract the US citizens from the reality that is their lives?