Bush: “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

[kpete]

In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Ambassador_claims_shortly_before_invasion_Bush_0804.html

[Fuzz]

1. Um

:spank:

[idgiehkt]

2. is it possible he doesn't know the Saudis are sunni?

I don't get it?

[Critters2]

15. It's possible he doesn't know the Saudis are Muslim

Moran

[Schema Thing]

31. Apparently he didn't know Muslim = Islam

[TahitiNut]

40. Junior probably thought Wahhabi was something served with sushi.

:dunce:

[OregonBlue]

49. I'd agree but suspect he wouldn't know sushi from tempura. Doesn't

strike me as someone who would experiment with "foreign foods" unless of course it "pig" in Germany!

[Lowell]

3. This just demonstrates the depth of ignorance

this administration has when it comes to the area of the world they are trying to democratize. What an asshat.

[jobycom]

4. I wonder how many in the media understood the distinction, or the

distinction between an Islamic government and a secular government, as Hussein's was. That's one way they sold the lie about Hussein and al-Qeada--no one understood how ridiculous such a claim was.

Anyone remember the story this year about the two people BushCO appointed as Iraqi experts who didn't even know the difference between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims?

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. All he knows/knew/need to know was that they had oil.

[Golden Raisin]

7. And that they wouldn't be welcome

or able to join any country club he (or any member of his family) ever belonged to. Wrong type of people, don't ya' know. Wink, wink.

[leftofthedial]

6. the oil bidniz

Israel's regional goals

criminal conmen financiers

and the wealthy jet setters

are all they know about any place

[Maraya1969]

8. He counted on his particular sect of Protestantism - "born again f

fundamentalists" to vote him into office and indeed the people who follow him because of his religion do it NOT because he is a Protestant but because he is a "born again fundamentalist Protestant. John Kerry who is a catholic PROTESTANT was not even considered to be a Christian by these people.

Many Protestants think other Protestant sects are going to Hell because they are not a member of their Protestant sect.

But he thinks all Muslim sects are the same.

[Sinti]

10. "catholic PROTESTANT"???? - 'splain please :)

I thought it was catholic = old church - Protestant = post-reformation church. I am confused, is there really a third way?

[YOY]

13. There is a third way but that's not it

Orthodox Christians (Russiansm Greeks, Romanians, Bulgarians...etc.) Americans always forget about them.

[On the Road]

24. Hey YOY, Like the Graphic

I saw it in Harper's and hung it in my office for years. Supposedly it's from Abkhazia in Georgia and based on an earlier "Marx-Lenin" set of stamps. You can almost see what the originals looked like.

[YOY]

43. I love Groucho and John

It just seemed like great laugh! I can read the cyrilic but couldn't figure out the country of origin. Georgia is as good as any place! I think it says Abkhazia on the side though...

[Retrograde]

29. don't forget Eastern Rite Catholics

Ever wonder why it's called Roman Catholic? It's just one of a large number of Catholic sects: there are others that recognize the Pope as the head of the Church (unlike the Orthodox Christians you mention) and are in full communion with Rome but do not use the Roman liturgy: the Maronite and Syrian Catholic Churches are (or were) big in the Middle East. If you saw the late Pope's funeral you may have seen some of those strangely garbed men performing parts of the services. The Roman rite is currently the largest by several orders of magnitude, so it gets all the press.

I think the earlier poster may have meant that Kerry is a Catholic who disagrees with some of current Church teachings. I can't think of a good name: Protesting Catholic? Dissenting Catholic? Disagreeable Catholic?

[YOY]

44. I know some Disagreeable Catholics!

Here's one!

:evilgrin:

I also forgot the Coptics as well too!

[tblue37]

45. The Episcopalian Church (Church of England)

is both a Protestant and a catholic church, though no one would call it "Protestant catholic." But I believe Kerry is actually Roman Catholic.

[Maraya1969]

47. Robins Williams calls the Episcopalian Church "Catholic Light"

:rofl:

I think that is too funny.

[Maraya1969]

48. Sorry you are right. I have to remember WASP "White Anglo Saxon

Protestant" I don't know what others thought of the title but when I was young every group had one and that was mine.

[Sinti]

53. I just thought I was out of the loop - they change so fast sometimes

When I was a kid and went to church you couldn't understand a damn thing they said, cause it was all in Latin... except the shake hands, peace be with you/and with you bit. The Southern Baptists were convinced we worshiped idols and were going straight to hell. Now, apparently it's all in the native tongue of your region and the two churches have nearly ended their feud.

:shrug:

[YOY]

12. As a Catholic I am tempted to throttle these people

but let it go and forgive their error...It's the Christian thing to do.

[WinkyDink]

26. No such animal as a "Catholic Protestant"! The PROTEST was

AGAINST Catholicism; hence, the term "Protestant" (cf: Martin Luther, 1517).

As for Christians per se: Protestants by definition came after Catholics. So "Christian Schools" ought really be named "Protestant Schools".

[tblue37]

46. The Church of England broke from Rome over the

issue of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which he wanted to have annulled. After the break from Rome, Henry and his bishops continued to consider the English church to be a "true catholic" church, as it considers itself to this day. (Look "catholic" up in the dictionary. The Roman Catholic Church does not mean quite the same as "a catholic church."

The Church of England became increasingly Protestant following Henry's death, under his son Edward. Then it swung wildly Roman Catholic under Queen Mary (Bloody Mary) and her husband, Philip II of Spain. (A Roman Catholic fanatic ehrself, Mary earned the sobriquet "Bloody Mary" for burning heretics at the stake.) Elizabeth, who succeeded Mary, was more tolerant, but she was clearly Protestant, and that is one reason why the religious fanatic Philip II sent the Spanish Armada to invade England. He felt it his duty to replace the heretic Queen Elizabeth with a proper Catholic queen (Mary, Queen of Scotland, also Dowager Queen of France, and Elizabeth's cousin).

Elizabeth was succeeded by James VI of Scotland (who commissioned the King James Bible as King James I of England). The Protestants and Roman Catholic religionists played tug-of-war in England for some time.

But the English Church claims a true apostolic succession, and it claims to be a catholic church--just not the Roman Catholic Church. Protestantism began as a protest against the layers of priests that were interposed between the individual's soul and God, and also against the blatant abuses of the Roman Church. They weren’t protesting “catholicism” but “Romanism.”

[struggle4progress]

54. Disagree. Luther's protests were originally directed, not against

the Catholic church, but against a set of specific practices. The authoritarianism of the Catholic church, and a variety of renaissance-era economic and social developments, subsequently produced schisms. Insofar as "catholic" means "universal," many Lutherans consider ourselves Catholic, although we remain split from Rome on certain doctrinal matters.

[IronLionZion]

33. Kerry is Catholic,

I might be a "Catholic Protestant" since my Dad's Catholic and my Mom's Protestant but I usually go to a Catholic church and say I'm Catholic.

[FearofFutility]

9. Another example of his stupidity

I remember him referring to Iran as an Arab country. Tell me again. How did this man become president?

[bumblebee1]

11. The laziness of the American people.

They at first wanted a "moral" man in the White House after Clinton. * said that he was a born-again Christian and the American people just bought into it. Those two reasons and the help of Katherine Harris and daddy's buddies on the USSC.

In 2004, the memories of 9/11 were fresh in everyone's minds. They wanted some "tough talking cowboy character" to protect them. The people didn't care if * was so incompetant that he couldn't hold a job in their company. He also had the help of Diebold and the state of Ohio. A flunky named J Kenneth Blackwell delivered Ohio to *.

The majority of Americans are finally waking up and realizing they've been taken for suckers. Don't be too surprised if a majority of the American public thinks Iranians are Arabs instead of Persians. The only Persians that Americans know of are of the feline variety.

[FearofFutility]

16. It's all coming back to me now. Sigh...........

I'm not surprised most Americans think Iranians are Arab, but I would expect the POTUS to know that fact.

[IronLionZion]

34. He also referred to Pakistanis as "Pakkies"

and called them an arab country.

[yellowcanine]

14. Don't forget - this guy actually brags that he doesn't read newspapers.

What do you expect? The man is aggressively ignorant.

[FearofFutility]

17. I've always described him as proactively ignorant

:crazy:

[Marie26]

20. That's better

He has to work hard at staying ignorant.

[acmavm]

18. It really doesn't matter a whit what this walking turd hearse

knows or doesn't know. He's only the butt-ugly face of this administration. The real movers and shakers are Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the boys from AIPAC.

[Marie26]

19. This thing was doomed from the beginning. nt

[Gruenemann]

21. LIttle known fact about Iraq:

Iraq has (had?) the largest Christian population of any middle eastern country; enough Catholics for there to be an Archbishop of Baghdad.

[IronLionZion]

35. had, probably not anymore

Lebanon and Syria have lots of Christians now.

Tariq Aziz is Christian.

[michael_1166]

22. As much as I hate Bush....

this one's understandable. People often reduce far-away countries to the few "facts" they know about that country. So Bush saying "I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!" is just like probably 95 % of Americans associating Germany with funny-looking, beer-drinking men in lederhosen. These guys are only kept alive for satisfying American tourists' expectations. ;-) (And they're only native to Bavaria, which is only one of Germany's 16 federal states.)

[bunkerbuster1]

38. But if I were going to actually INVADE Bavaria...

I'd probably at least bother to learn a thing or two about it, to know what I was getting into.

[skypilot]

23. kick

*

[opihimoimoi]

25. Its the IG Factor : Bush and all too many in this World are Ignorant..

by choice... they do not read/ inform themselves/ etc.

Not a curious bone their bodies...they let Destiny take control...

Opportunities slip by as water under a bridge....Sadly, we watch this nutcase display a very high level of IG.

[Opusnone]

27. They know even less about Iran

They'll probably call the Arabs.

[Doctor_J]

28. This is doubtful

I have serious doubts that * even knew what a Muslim was, much less that Iraqis are Muslim.

[Schema Thing]

32. The context show's you're correct. He didn't know muslim = Islam

[Retrograde]

30. where was he during the Iran hostage crisis?

Where was he during the Iran hostage crisis - which his father may have had a hand in? Or during the subsequent Iran/Iraq war - he can ask his bud Rummy about this, since he was selling weapons to Saddam at the time? The press back then used to go on about the long-standing difficulties between the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. Absolutely No Excuse.

[Robeson]

39. Packing his nose and living the good life...

...I would imagine. Untouched by, and without, interest in anything in World...

[geardaddy]

42. He was snorting blow

and drinking himself even sillier.

[spanone]

36. That's right there in the 'they all look alike' column.

Ignorant fuck.

[bunkerbuster1]

37. Wasn't this reported already?

I'm sure it's in Franken's latest book, and other places as well.

It really shouldn't shock anyone that Bush was advocating on behalf of invading a country that he knew very little about, and wasn't about to bother to educate himself about it, either.

[SammyWinstonJack]

41. Pinhead's first mistake is "thinking" at all! Seriesly!!11! He "thinks"

at our peril!

[JackNewtown]

50. Stunning, Dems should seize this to blast *'s incompetence

He invaded a country without even bothering to read an encylopedia article on it, let alone do some research or talk to experts on Iraq. Democrats should seize this to blast *'s incompetence.

[Jack Rabbit]

51. Bush should have lunch with Jessica Simpson

Tuna sandwitches will be serves, of course. He'll ask him what kind of animal is a tuna and he'll scratch his head, his chin and admit he doesn't know. either.

[grannylib]

52. I'm sure his handlers thought he'd get it Sunni 'nuff....

sorry. Old pun. Couldn't resist.