I thought the first rule of war was "Know your enemy." Well, if you are part of the Bush administration, you can't be bothered. I want to call your attention to an article called "Bush Madness Becomes Apparent" and, among other things, it's about willful ignorance. Take a look:

Jonathan Alter of "Newsweek" magazine reminds us that that a section of the Iraq Study Group Report explains our diplomatic efforts have a serious handicap because, as the study notes, "our embassy of 1,000 has 33 Arabic speakers, just six of whom are the level of fluency. In a conflict that demands effective and efficient communications with Iraqis, we are often at a disadvantage."

And look at this ignorance about terrorism and as well as Islam:

Dale Watson, the FBI's top counter-terrorism official before and after 9/11, now retired, was asked..., "Do you know who Osama bin Laden's spiritual leader was?"

Watson: "Can't recall."

Lawyer: "And do you know the difference in the religion between Shiite and Sunni Muslims?"

Watson: "Not technically, no."

The same question was posed to John Lewis, who until recently was the FBI's assistant director of counter-terrorism.

Lewis: "You know generally. Not very well."

Lawyer: "Was there any relationship between the first World Trade Center bombing and the 9/11 attacks?"

Lewis: "I'm aware of no immediate relationship other than all emanates out of the Middle East, al-Qaeda linkage, I believe. Not something I've studied recently that I'm conversant with."

Don't bother studying anything important. Be like Bush -- run with your gut, lump everything in the Middle East together and brand it as terror. The FBI director is tolerating this inexcusable ignorance and he should be held accountable for it.

And, sadly, here's a Democrat who's not any better:

Lawmakers responsible for overseeing U.S. intelligence are not much better. "Congressional Quarterly's" National Security Editor Jeff Stein asked the man incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tapped to chair the Intelligence Committee what branch of Islam al-Qaeda is linked to.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, answered, "They are probably both." Then he said, "Predominantly probably Shiite." Nice try. He had a 50-50 chance and was flat wrong.

You know, this is really scary when you think about it. This contempt for the responsibility of informing oneself is truly unsettling. Are we, as Americans, so arrogant that we think our ignorance will have no consequences?