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| Iraq | |
| Iraq cancels police, army leaves and curfew hours extended in Baghdad | |
| 2006-02-23 | |
Iraqi Shiites bent on retribution rampaged against Sunni Arabs up and down the country Wednesday, Feb. 22, after bombers destroyed the gold dome of the 1,200-year old Askariya shrine in Samarra. The attack against one of four Shiite holy places has brought the country to the brink of sectarian civil war. More than 100 Sunni mosques were destroyed. DEBKAfile’s sources: The bombing was carried out by a small squad trained by Abu Musab al Zarqawi especially for the operation. Four-to-six men entered the Askariya mosque Tuesday night and placed explosive charges around the interior of the gold dome so as to bring it crashing down on the sacred tombs below. Samarra police have made 10 arrests, among them foreigners, as would be typical of al Qaeda. Shortly after the disaster in Samarra, Iran’s spiritual leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, in contrast to the US president’s effort to calm the flames, accused “US forces and Israeli intelligence” of responsibility. The Islamic republic is quite willing to exploit the destruction of a Shiite shrine to fuel the fire of sectarian conflict, in the hope of expediting the US forces’ exit from Iraq. The thousands of Iranian agents operating clandestinely in Iraq can be expected to aggravate civil strife in Iraq by agitation and leading attacks on Sunnis. Some Shiite leaders blamed the United States for not protecting their shrine and are demanding a bigger security role for religious militias. But voices were also raised in an attempt to pull the country back from the brink: US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad warned the bombings were a deliberate provocation to foment sectarian tension and civil war. Key Sunni groups condemned the destruction of the Shiite mosque’s dome. The Sunni clerical association of Muslim Scholars called the bombing a criminal act. | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #9 Oh I forgot the kicker... Dad was on Amb Purifoy's christmas mailing list till the Amb was killed in Thailand by a run away truck... You remember him.. the left made a movie about him called "The Ugly Americian." Ya know his wife was called a Pistol Packing Mama... He did so many of those clean-ops the left still screams about today... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-02-23 23:21 |
| #8 Hey,,, I was in UNL. That's a football college. Isn't that kind of the same? Of course.... we sold or season tickets to pay cover at the ZOOBAR for long nights with Muddy Waters and the like... but that was 70s and the ROTC bldg still stunk from being burned so nah.. no war college or neo-con experience here. However, we did approach Jakarta harbor and dock in the middle of their revolution and had to take on refugees for India and I did wander the bazzars of Karachi and watched anti-british riots just before Aden became the Peoples Republic of ... and I was bounced on the knees of the Flying Tigers (CAT - Air Am) when born and lived only.... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-02-23 23:17 |
| #7 I can still do my several dozen real sit-ups (no wimpy crunches for this girl!), and a couple one-arm push-ups if I cross my eyes really hard. But otherwise the description fits... except for the donut and the male bits, of course, but I'm sure Buzzsaw was stymied by that whole English as a default masculine language thingy. The point of this exercise in nation-building is to give them a chance to come out of the 9th century. After all, they've had the benefit of two generations under real, honest-to-god mid-20th century totalitarian fascism, so Bush thought they might be ready to progress. And given that 14 of the 17 provinces are peacefully being run by Iraqis for Iraq, with hardly a Western boot in sight, there is a bit of a glimmer of a hope that they are, indeed, progressing. But I never went to War College (just audited at Rantburg U.), so I'm likely totally off base here. (Phil_b, really good point about civil wars. In my unschooled ignorance I hadn't thought of that.) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-23 22:17 |
| #6 Okay--the donut's down. You're the one with the war college education--you tell us what happens now. I'll check back later. That donut is looking lonely... |
| Posted by: Dar 2006-02-23 20:27 |
| #5 Buzzsaw is probably a journalism major, since the primary qualification seems to be extensive ignorance of as many topics as possible. The media is currently full of talk about a civil war. A civil war requires as a pre-requisite that neither side is capable of inflicting a decisive defeat on the other side. This is not the case in Iraq, and hence there will not be a civil war there. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2006-02-23 19:38 |
| #4 That's pretty heady stuff. Lotsa bashin and puffin. You gonna be around either way, Buzz? |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-23 19:19 |
| #3 "DEBKAfile's sources" places this bombing in the hands of Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Perhaps. But there is no credible evidence available to support that claim. But I guess it is comforting to some to keep believing that all of this strife is being brought about by 'foreign fighters' and not the Iraqis themselves. I think it is time to face the reality that Iraq is teetering on the brink of full scale civil war. Many of my friends and I with war college training feared this scenario prior to the U.S. engagement in this war. We spoke of caution and tried to explain that ridding Iraq of Saddam without having another authoritative replacement (such as an Iraqi General)to replace him was opening the country to civil war. We tried to explain the deep religious and political divides that separated the Shia, Sunni and Kurds. But we were consistently shouted down and called wimps by our neo-con friends. Most of those neo-cons that we encountered were short statured soft-bellied young men that never had to hump anything heavier than a bag of donuts. And God knows they were way to good to serve in the military. Hell that's for the rest of us to do. Yep, they had this whole thing all figured out. Well boys it ain't lookin' too good right now. It appears those old 9'th century grudges between the Shia and the Sunni are about to meet head on here in the 21'st century and we got our boots stuck right in the middle of this shit heap. Put your donut down chub-chub. What's the plan now ? |
| Posted by: Buzzsaw 2006-02-23 17:53 |
| #2 I figure this has to happen regardless, whether there will be an organized concerted move - or just a lockdown to prevent more violence. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-02-23 17:26 |
| #1 The shit is hitting the fan..... this all that needs to f'ing happen- more innocent people dead and more unending fuel for the defeatists. |
| Posted by: bgrebel 2006-02-23 17:20 |