Problem is, many American diplomats, spies, journalists and academics who focus on the Middle East simply cannot understand the region without the notion of Sunni dominance. The supposedly marginal minorities, such as the Shiites and the Kurds, should always be subservient to the Sunnis, goes this line of thinking. It doesn't matter if the Shiites and Kurds constitute over 80 percent of the Iraqi nation; "What will the Saudis say?" is the refrain of this crowd.
Well, what the Saudis have to say matters very little in Iraq, and once Iraq gets back on its legs and breathes petro-fire around the neighborhood, the Saudis will matter very little across the Middle East. A new paradigm is forming, and many traditional American centers of wisdom on the region are ill-equipped to understand it.
Always tough times when the elite's vision falls. In the middle east and the US too. ????? ????, ????? ?????? (He hit me and cried, then was quick to complain) neatly describes the reaction.
