I mean, just because someone blows up one of the most famous Shi’a mosques in the entire world . . .
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Top U.S. officials strongly condemned the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine Wednesday, calling it a desperate and despicable act designed to foment sectarian strife. […]
A pair of bombs Wednesday morning caused extensive damage to the golden dome of the Askariya shrine in Samarra, triggering protests and reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques.
or the fact that 27 Sunni mosques have been attacked in response . . .
SIX Sunnis were killed and 27 Sunni mosques attacked in Baghdad overnight in the wake of the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine north of the capital, a security official said. […]
One of the mosques was set on fire and a number of others were machine-gunned, the official added.
or that two Sunni clerics were assasinated and and one kidnapped . . .
Gunmen separately killed two Sunni clerics and kidnapped another in Baghdad on Wednesday, as sectarian tension grew up between Shiite and Sunni community following the bombing of a holy Shiite shrine, an Interior Ministry source said.
“Unknown gunmen shot dead Shiekh Hassan Hadith Hassan, a Sunni Imam of the al-Yamani mosque in Zaafaraniyah, in southern Baghdad, ” the source said on condition of anonymity.
or that Muqtada al-Sadr wants him some revenge . . .
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Shi’ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr blamed the bombing of a Shi’ite shrine in the Iraqi town of Samarra on Wednesday on Sunni Arab militants and vowed to take revenge, a spokesman for Sadr said.
“We will not only condemn and protest but we will act against those militants. If the Iraqi government does not do its job to defend the Iraqi people we are ready to do so,” said Abdel Hadi al-Darajee of Sadr’s position.
Members of Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia have already clashed with Sunnis in Diwaniya and Basra. […]
Witnesses said scores of his militiamen armed with AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades took over streets in his Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City after the Samarra attack.
. . . that doesn’t mean Iraq has descended into chaos and civil war. Does it? Midwest Heroes, those folks running the ads in Minnesota and online about how the war in Iraq is going so well, they couldn’t possibly be making it all up, could they?
I’m so confused. Maybe Sean Hannity can explain it to me, so I can go back to believing in Mission Accomplished, and the strength and wisdom of our President’s strategery, once more.
