A Holiday Book Gift List for Congressman Reyes

Congressman Silvestre Reyes was appointed by Nancy Pelosi to head the House Intelligence Committee. His lack of preparation for this highly important position was exposed by a Congressional Quarterly reporter and is shocking and disgraceful. An excerpt from CQ.com:

The dialogue went like this:

Al Qaeda is what, I asked, Sunni or Shia?

“Al Qaeda, they have both,” Reyes said. “You’re talking about predominately?”

“Sure,” I said, not knowing what else to say.

“Predominantly — probably Shiite,” he ventured.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

Al Qaeda is profoundly Sunni. If a Shiite showed up at an al Qaeda club house, they’d slice off his head and use it for a soccer ball.

That’s because the extremist Sunnis who make up a l Qaeda consider all Shiites to be heretics.

Al Qaeda’s Sunni roots account for its very existence.

The reporter is right: the men who make up al Qaeda are extremist Sunni Salafists who have their roots in the actions and writings, circa 1950s, of Egyptian Sayyid Qtub, a founder of the Muslim Brotherhood who published many influential books and was the mentor for Egyptians al-Zawihiri, the at-large al Qaeda #2, and Mohammed Atta, who flew a jet into the WTC.

Sunni Salafists believe that Democracy is the tyranny of man over man, ergo slavery, and that the only just rule is Sharia, which is the rule of God over man, which is more just in their eyes than is Democracy. They also think that Shiites are apostates, and that they and anyone who works with a Democratic government (which is de facto a form of slavery) can justly be killed. This intellectual movement is at the base of the conflict in Iraq that is becoming a civil war and understanding it is central to figuring out what the US should do next, or should have been pre-War.

So how can Reyes not have a basic grasp on this when he has been in the House for 32 years? Reyes got elected and is paid to understand this stuff and make policy based on his understanding and knowledge. He earns $165,200, has health care and retirement benefits that vastly exceed those of ordinary citizens, and has a staff of 26 even in the minority, paid for by you and me.

Yet ordinary citizens do a much better job than Reyes does with his reading, placing many Iraq-themed books on bestseller lists. In the past year alone I have in my spare time read many books on the subject and would have answered the CQ reporter's questions more competently than did the Chairman-elect of the House Intelligence Committee. Get your ass in gear, Mr. Reyes, or give me your pension that I am paying for because I know a hell of a lot more than you do.

My suggestions for book gifts to Reyes are:

1. The Looming Tower, on the NY Times Best 10 list and an incredible read that illuminates the origins of al Qaeda and the FBI and CIA agents involved in the chase. Paul O'Neill was the FBI's own John Riggins, a great story and that profile alone is worth the read.

2. Imperial Life in the Emerald City. This book illustrates the follies of the CPA and occupation and basically shows that it was Keystone Kops but only worse as it was polticized as 24 year-old Bush campaigners were given key jobs over experienced men and women who were pro-choice or something equally disagreeable in their eyes.

3. The One Percent Doctrine. This book, by Ron Suskind, who wrote another fabulous book about a student in the DC schools, takes a look at the rationale that got us into Iraq in the first place. Namely, that was if there was a 1% chance that something bad could happen then the US ought to act as if it were a certainty. Explains a lot.

4. Assassin's Gate. This was one of the first to come out and is particularly interesting because its writer, George Packer, supported the invasion and grew disgruntled.

5. Fiasco. Tom Ricks, veteran Pentagon reporter lays it out and his title says it all.