Shiites
It’s become a bit rote to point out that “we’ve created a Shiite Crescent” in the Middle East, running through Iran, Iraq becoming essentially an Iranian Client state, and into those troubles in Southern Lebanon. It’s a bit curious as Americans, amp up the concerns once expressed by Sunnis, when Americans couldn’t tell you the difference between Sunni and Shiite if theire life depended on it, choosing to lump them into the same Muslim umbrella and let that be it. This ignorance is excusable to the population at large to a certain extent, less excusable to the chattering class who end up crafting the language of discussion on matters of foreign policy, and completely inexcusable to the Bush Administration, Bush the Lesser reportedly not knowing the difference between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds right on the eve of launching the War in Iraq.
What’s prickling me these days is another tired canard. It’s a gag I hear all the time, from the John Stewart Show to right wing radio to any dumb random person on the street. It is the phrase “Holy Shi-ite!” or any substitution of “Shi-ite” for the word “Shit”. To wit, “You know, the Israelis are bombing the Holy Shi-ite out of Lebanon!”
My mind reels to an Australian broadcast from the start of the Iraq War, looking at Fox News and Al-Jazerra, starting the broadcast with a clip of John Gibson saying “The Shi-ite is going to hit the fan.” The Australian news-caster then said, “Human Beings as Feces. That’s just one of the things you’ll hear on the American Fox News Network.”
After a few years, my initial indifference to the jab turns to irritation. It’s political and not political at the same time — which is to say that it is an easy meme to pass to the general generally apolitical public. It’s a lazy affront, a stupid pun, and a means toward dehumanizing a population, theoretically and in some alternate universe one the US Government is “liberating”. The contradictions collapse onto themselves.