"Set aside sectarian differences" - Are You Kidding!!!

I love the term “set aside sectarian differences.” I just heard President Obama use it in an interview about what’s gone wrong in Iraq. Did the military advisors of Bush I & Bush II really think that the success of two military invasions would be accomplished because the leaders of the nations of the Middle East would really “set aside sectarian differences?” Did they believe that after foreign armies marched through their lands centuries of tribal hatred and a century of battles between oil corporations for the black gold would simply magically disappear?

Sectarian means “narrowly confined or devoted to a particular sect; narrowly confined or limited in interest, purpose, scope, etc.” What is a sect? It is any group, party, or faction united by a specific doctrine (belief) or under a doctrinal leader.

I have an idea. You know it’s always better to teach something by showing and demonstrating how it works than by simply describing it – for example, how to fly a jet plane. What if all it took to get a license to fly jets was to complete an online course -- but never get into the cockpit of a real jet plane? Would you take a ride with a pilot trained like that?

So here is my idea. How about our political leaders showing the leaders of the Middle East nations how to “setting aside sectarian differences” by “setting aside their sectarian (political) differences” and governing our nation -- guarding and protecting the people that elected them?

If our leaders did that – the shock might scare “the sectarianism” out of a lot of leaders around the world!

That’s my “cogitation” for the day!

JM