And what makes you confident that Americans *aren’t* clueless? Especially when you don’t give any evidence to the contrary.
I’ve talked to many people, seen many online comments here, read many articles, where people assume Iranians are Arabs. No not *everyone* thinks that, but given the distribution of people who do, it’s not off the charts to say that a large number of people don’t have a good idea of the diversity of the M.E.
“Wise men do not need to debate. If you need to debate, you are not wise.” —Chinese proverb