Iran's Helping Sunnis Or Shiites?

Here's Video.

According to John McCain, the Sunnis...

He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back."

Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."

Al Qaeda, of course, is a Sunni group. Iran is said to be arming Shiite militias.

Now -- this could have been a brain flub. Some vesicle unloading an errant amount of a neutrotransmitter into the synaptic cleft. Or whatever. We all make 'em. But certain flubs can't be made... and this is probably one of them.

(Hat tip, La Page.)

Comments

It's not a brain flub. It's an accurate reflection of McCain's abysmal ignorance about just about everything. Here we have a man as ignorant as GWB and even more stubborn. God help the USA if he's elected.

Posted by Steve LaBonne | March 18, 2008 1:56 PM

Think Progress reports McCain also said this on Hugh Hewitt's radio show last night.

Posted by Bill White | March 18, 2008 2:00 PM

Can you imagine what the media would do to Obama if he made a similar mistake? But because it's St. McCain, the media won't make this kind of sloppy ignorance a part of the conventional wisdom about him. Nope, he's a straight shooting maverick, he is!

Posted by Dr. Victor Davis Handjob | March 18, 2008 2:05 PM

Can you imagine what the media would do to Obama if he made a similar mistake? But because it's St. McCain, the media won't make this kind of sloppy ignorance a part of the conventional wisdom about him. Nope, he's a straight shooting maverick, he is!

Posted by Dr. Victor Davis Handjob | March 18, 2008 2:06 PM

"extremists, and not Al Queda"?

I don't see much of a disjoint there. AQ are nothing if not "extremist".

Besides, those groups go by whatever name seems catchy at the moment. Basically they are career criminals working for a living. They change names faster than teenage garage bands, and most of the names are even more ridiculously pompous.

Posted by robert ethan | March 18, 2008 2:06 PM

Bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb Iran...

http://www.political-buzz.com/

Posted by mpp | March 18, 2008 2:12 PM

Far be it for me to defend the Incipient Alzheimer's Befuddlement of Methusela McCain, but differentiating between, "Al Queda", "Sunni extremists", "Lions of Mohammed", "Defenders of the One True God"...bla...bla..bla..., is a bit like quibbling over whether the fat greasy biker selling heroin outside the high school is a member of the "Hell's Angels", "Satan's Choice", or the "Outlaws".

Posted by robert ethan | March 18, 2008 2:17 PM

Iran is training hamas by the hundreds in camps in Iran.

So it is not exclusively a shia are against all sunnis.

Hezbollah are also close with Hamas.

Iran has brought in longer range rockets to gaza to help hamas and has trainers in gaza.

It is called jet lag McCain hasn't had sleep in a week and his mind has been on al queda and the offensive in Mosul.

I have heard McCain talk about JAM and them being trained in Iran numerous times.

McCain has a long record you can go after him on old age and losing his train of thought but he knows the difference between shia and sunni.

Posted by Jason | March 18, 2008 2:24 PM

Oh man. Come on, Johnny Mac!

Posted by Bill | March 18, 2008 2:33 PM

He said, basically, the same thing yesterday on some "right-wing" radio show:

"As you know, there are al Qaeda operatives that are taken back into Iran, given training as leaders, and they’re moving back into Iraq. "

--John McCain, March 17, 2008

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=ae522a49-6c82-4791-a76e-44ebb718bf32

Posted by Colin Hicks | March 18, 2008 2:44 PM

Its probably a mix up more than ignorance considering he's on the senate armed services committee and holds hearings on this stuff all the time. Not to mention this is his 8th trip to Iraq.

The whole thing reminds me of the time that Obama said he would meet with the president of Canada.

Posted by Jesse | March 18, 2008 2:59 PM

It is one of those 'deja vu' experiences to see McCain struggle with the shia-sunni division. In the NYTimes of 3Mar03 George Packer writes about a group of Iraqi dissident/ex-pats who were explaining to GeoWBush what would be required to make a success out of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They emphasized the need to bring together the two 'sects' of Islam. Bush was nonplused; you mean there's TWO kinds of Muslim?!

Republicans are like Louis XIV--they never learn anything nor forget anything.

With any luck the electorate will learn something, then we can forget these clowns.

Posted by JohnMcC | March 18, 2008 3:03 PM

This is his signature issue. If he's flubbing this already, the campaign is going to seem very long.

Posted by Helter | March 18, 2008 3:07 PM

You can't make your whole campaign about your national security chops and then make a BASIC error like this. Sorry, the Sunni/Shia schism IS the issue in Iraq. Not understanding it and the importance of those distinctions is crippling for a candidated predicated on national security.

That or it's evidence of the onslaught of demensia.

Posted by Keith | March 18, 2008 3:10 PM

WHAT??

According to the reports available, most of AQI's operatives are not Iraqi, but instead come through a series of safe houses, inclunding in Iran, and mantains an extensive logistical network throughou ... Iran.

It's even in the wikipedia, for Christ's sake!!

Please, read this report:
http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2005/65275.htm

Marc, correct your post, please.

Posted by asada | March 18, 2008 3:12 PM

Yeah, but he makes delicious ribs. He's the kind of guy you want to have a beer with.

Posted by TomT | March 18, 2008 3:16 PM

Well, asada has a point. The wikipedia article on AQ in I states that their logistical network is also based in Iraq:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_Iraq

Posted by Peterfromtexas | March 18, 2008 3:16 PM

Well, asada has a point. The wikipedia article on AQ in I states that their logistical network is also based in IRAN:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_Iraq

"AQI's operations are predominately Iraq-based, but the United States Department of State alleges that the group maintains an extensive logistical network throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Iran.."

Posted by Peterfromtexas | March 18, 2008 3:19 PM

al-Qaeda destroyed the thousand-year-old Golden Mosque, one of the most sacred sites in Shia Islam. w/o even a basic understanding of the ME, McCain's foreign policy would be shaped wholly by appointees--AEI alums, I guess, & whomever Lieberman whispers in his ear. fun.

Posted by J.Myrick | March 18, 2008 3:37 PM

"Now -- this could have been a brain flub. Some vesicle unloading an errant amount of a neutrotransmitter into the synaptic cleft."

Is this one of those cognitive neuroscience things you talk about in the "About Marc Ambinder" blurb?

Posted by AndyS | March 18, 2008 5:00 PM

Wikipedia says - well, that certainly means the conversation is over!

AQI is one of the most anti-Shia organizations in the world. Under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who absolutely hated Shiites, AQI pioneered the mass suicide bombing of Shia civilian targets and helped precipitate the ongoing sectarian violence and civil war in Iraq. al-Qaeda in Iraq is ferociously anti-Shia, far more so than al-Zawahiri and bin Laden, and for McCain to not understand this is for him to miss one of the main contours of this war.

It's not as simple as confusing Sunni/Shia, which is inexcusable in itself. AQI's anti-Shia, anti-Iranian bent is one of the basic keystone facts of the war and a key driver of the current violence. It's like failing to understand that the Confederacy was proslavery.

Posted by tequila | March 19, 2008 5:09 AM