Where we are.

This is a common symptom of the right's wrongheaded thinking on our current situation in Western Asia. It is the underlying theme of most of Hannity and Limbaugh's shows these days, and has become a default reaction to the pro war right's defensiveness about the disastrous course we've chosen:

President Bush today: "These people attacked us before we were even in Iraq!"

Can we have a little frankness, please?

The President of the United States is a racist. Or at the very least, an anti-Muslim bigot.

In Iraq, Shi'ites and Sunni are fighting each other to the death. Under what possible logic can they be joined by a common identity?

Add to this simplistic, racist, anti-intellectual and just dead wrong prejudice a foreign policy based upon this sort of "hit and hope" triple bank shot:

In an interview on CNN International's Your World Today, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh explains that the current violence in Lebanon is the result of an attempt by the Lebanese government to crack down on a militant Sunni group, Fatah al-Islam, that it formerly supported.

Last March, Hersh reported that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if it meant backing hardline Sunni jihadists.

A key element of this policy shift was an agreement among Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, whereby the Saudis would covertly fund the Sunni Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia Hezbollah.

Just so we've all got it straight, we're playing the same game we played in the 80s, funding radical Sunni militants (at that time, the son of a prominent Saudi family named Osama Bin Laden) in order to offset the influence of radical Shiite militants (read, Iran), while at the same time stoking Muslim hatred of America at the highest levels by adopting the most infantile language available to describe the various warring sects throughout the region.

There were more than a few people who pointed out that a "straight talking Texan who don't do nuance" was another way of describing a mouth breathing idiot.

Update: A reader points out that Michael Young (Daily Star in Lebanon, Reason Magazine) has questions about Hersh's assertions regarding Lebanese/US funding of Fatah al-Islam in Lebanon. I find it hard to believe that a veteran reporter like Hersh sourced his story as flimsily as Young claims. Hopefully, the questions raised by Hersh as well as Young's counterpoint will rise to a level that the blogosphere will take note of, so that we can bring some clarity to this critically important issue. I'll not hold my breath that I'll get any resolution on this on the evening news. Either way, thanks to the reader for the lead.