McCain Confuses Shiites And Sunnis

Nobody understands the military and the Middle East like John McCain does, because he invented them. He also invented calculus, and the Cleveland Steamer, and the French poetry form known as the villanelle. But today we will be talking about Sunnis and Shias, which John McCain also invented, back when he was a young pup hanging out with Mohammed. It's been so long that McCain has forgotten which is which!

Today he told reporters that Iran was training al Qaeda fighters and sending them into Iraq. This is hilarious because of course Iran is Shiite and al Qaeda is Sunni, so they hate each other.

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."

Vinegar Joe Lieberman quickly intervened, suggesting that Iran is trainingShiiteextremists and sending them into Iraq. So there you have it, old foreign policy wonk and most-credible-war-on-terror-guy McCain can't remember which religious sect aligns with which ancient hatred, because he is senile.

 A McCain Gaffe in Jordan [The Trail]