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Punked for Petrodollars
When President George W. Bush got himself a do-over on President George H.W. Bush’s decision not to go to Baghdad and depose Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War, he opted for regime change. Perhaps this was because of the rumored plot to assassinate his father or perhaps because Saddam Hussein’s propaganda machine had been working to convince Iraqis that they won the first Gulf War. More likely, he just allowed himself to be led into it by the neo-cons who had tried unsuccessfully to sell the bill of goods that was the second Gulf War to President Bill Clinton.
Whatever his motivation for going to Baghdad, Bush 43 appointed an interim government in Baghdad in which a number of the major players did not know the difference between Sunni and Shi’a Islam. They soon learned.
The Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, either ascended to heaven or kicked the bucket in 622 C.E., leaving a void at the top of Islam that was both theological and political.
The faction to be known as Sunnis picked the new honcho by agreement among Mohammad’s generals. The new caliph, Abu Bakr, was a political leader chosen by customary political means.
The faction to be known as Shi’a believed that legitimate caliphs had to be from within Muhammad’s family, and they chose Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law.
