When a US official thinks he is being smart about the Middle East

I love it when a US official thinks he is being smart about the Middle East: we had so many moments like that before the US invaded Iraq when all those Zionist officials were coming up with theories about why the invasion would be great for the US and Israel.  "As the case traveled up the administration’s chain of command beginning in the fall of 2010, some officials proposed leaving the Hezbollah link unsaid. They argued that simply blacklisting the bank would disrupt the network while insulating the United States from suspicions of playing politics, especially amid American alarm about ebbing influence in the Middle East. But the prevailing view was that the case offered what one official called “a great opportunity to dirty up Hezbollah” by pointing out the hypocrisy of the “Party of God” profiting from criminal activity."  Look at this one.  There was no such discussion about this in the Arabic press: barely anything even in the Hariri and Saudi press.  The US official did not know that drug trade is not as stigmatized as it is in the US: that drug are not seen as they are seen here in puritanical America.