The US tends to skip the essential step of research when meddling in the Middle East. Very little effort is made to study the roots and evolution of the conflicts there.

In 2006, The New York Times’ Jeff Stein wrote an article titled “Can You Tell a Sunni from a Shiite.” This should have been a wake up call, not only to government officials, but to American citizens as well. But, like many other nuances of the Middle East, it was swept under the rug. 

The article highlights the lack of understanding of fundamental issues in the Middle East, specifically in government officials. After the FBI’s Chief of Counterterrorism, Gary Bald, publicly failed to answer basic questions about Islam in 2005, eyebrows were raised. When asked about it, the FBI’s spokesman, John Miller, emphasized that Mr. Bald is a leader and, “does not need to memorize the collected statements of Osama bin Laden, or be able to read Urdu to be effective.” He calls these types of questions “playing ‘Islamic Trivial Pursuit’” and says it was “a cheap shot for the lawyers and a cheaper shot for the journalist.” 

I find this peculiar; because, as Stein points out, no one had asked about reading Urdu or Bin Laden’s statements. 

In 2006, Stein asked Willie Hulon, chief of the FBI’s new national security branch, about the difference between Sunni and Shi’a. Though he did acknowledge that “sure, it’s right to know the difference,” he was unable to explain it. Stein moved to a simpler question: which sect current groups of interest follow. Huron incorrectly labeled both Iran and Hezbollah as Sunni. Though he correctly identified Al Qaeda as Sunni, it is difficult to know if he was just guessing, seeing as he failed to correctly answer the previous two questions. 

This should alarm everyone and inspire change, but US officials seem more concerned with maintaining their image than actually enacting effective measures against terrorism. 

Read Jeff Stein’s article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/opinion/17stein.html