Foreign-policy misrepresentation breeds both real-world harm and self-inflicted American shock.

Evidence

It tells us how United States representatives, and with them a good part of the Orientalist establishment, have created a reality that corresponds neither to our world nor to Iran’s. But if it does not also demonstrate how such misrepresentations had better be thrown away forever, then Americans are in for more international troubles and, alas, their innocence will again be uselessly offended. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 108

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘innocence will again be uselessly offended’ line prefigures the recurring post-9/11 American surprise Said will later analyze.