Black Box Report

Sunni...Shiite...Eh, what's the difference?

The war in Iraq and the deteriorating situation in the Middle East is the number one foreign policy issue of this election; of this decade; of this generation. As such, shouldn't presidential candidates who want to be in charge of that mess have some clue as to what's going on?

"And my friends, if we left, they (al-Qaida) wouldn't be establishing a base," McCain said Wednesday. "They'd be taking a country, and I'm not going to allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender. I will not surrender to al-Qaida."

Taking a what, now? If we leave, al Qaeda will take over Iraq? You know a statement is stupid when even Joe Klein has to point it out:

Last time I checked, Iraq has a Shi'ite majority. McCain thinks the Shi'ites--the Mahdi Army, the Badr Corps (and yes, the Iranians)--would allow a small group of Sunni extremists to take over?...The vast majority of indigenous Iraqi Sunnis aren't too thrilled about the AQI presence in their country, either...The sadness here is that McCain knows better. He knows the complexities of the world, and the region. But I suspect he's overplaying his Iraq hand in order to win favor with the wingnuts in his party. That is extremely unfortunate.

And yet extremely unsurprising. After all, he's embracing Bush's war, Bush's foreign policy, and Bush's mistakes. Why not the stupidity as well?

This isn’t complicated. The president told the nation, “An emboldened al Qaeda with access to Iraq’s oil resources could pursue its ambitions to acquire weapons of mass destruction to attack America and other free nations.” The claim is absurd, and asked to defend it, the White House couldn’t. Indeed, if we take Bush’s words at face value, and consider them in context, we’re necessarily “missing the point,” as far as the president’s chief spokesperson is concerned.

It fascinates me that even now, as the war begins its sixth year, the White House is still struggling to come up with arguments that make sense and can withstand even cursory scrutiny.

Of course, Joe Klein notwithstanding, the media failed to notice these absurdities (press corps motto: "Listen. Repeat."), and so McCain was free to move on to his next fabulous statement. Not once. Not twice. Not three times...Well, you get the point:

(McCain) recently claimed, multiple times, that Iran is training al Qaeda elements from Iraq. Iran, of course, is a Shia theocracy, and al Qaeda a Sunni terrorist group. This is like claiming that the RNC is training Democratic congressional candidates.

It was bad enough when U.S. intelligence officials and even congressmen didn't know the difference between Sunni and Shiite muslims in Iraq. How can McCain answer that 3am call if he doesn't even know who's who?

That is not a gaffe. That is called believing something that isn't true. It is called being confused. And being confused about the differences between Shia and Sunni when claiming that you should be elected president of the United States on your foreign policy knowledge and experience, is simply not okay. This is a big deal.

Either he doesn't actually know what he's talking about, or he does, but he's intentionally blurring the line to confuse al Qaeda, al Qaeda in Iraq and Iran; three separate entities. So, our intrepid press corps is going to treat this like a big deal, right? NBC News' political director Chuck Todd explained how the press will handle this yesteday on MSNBC Live:

TODD: -- this was not a one-time slip and so, you know, this just shows you how much bank -- how much of the foreign policy experience stuff he's got in the bank, because had Clinton or Obama done something like this, this would have been played on a loop, over and over, and would have absolutely hurt them politically......For now, McCain is showing the advantages of not having the media very focused on his candidacy right now.

Mr. Todd, with all due respect, you are the media. You were focused on the subject and talking about McCain's candidacy, and you're givcing him a pass because he's got too much stuff in his head?

God forbid McCain's foreign policy experience may not be as impressive as he told you it was on the bus.