NBC Baghdad Blog: Today may be treated as Iraq's 9/11

[sabra]

http://baghdadblog.msnbc.com/

A big step backwards
Posted by Mike Boettcher, NBC News Correspondent (02:29 pm ET, 02/22/06)

This was a very bad day in Iraq. The future of U.S. plans here now hinges on how Iraq's Shiite Muslims react to the destruction of one of their holiest shrines - Askariya mosque in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad.

If Iraq's majority Shiite population treats this assault as their 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, then Iraq is almost certainly headed towards civil war.

Who did it?

The assumption is that a faction of Iraq's Sunni-led insurgency launched the attack. Many elements of the insurgency, especially al-Qaida in Iraq, have sought to provoke civil war.

Thousands of Shiite civilians have been killed in insurgent bombing attacks, but the leading Shiite cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has urged restraint, and Shiite faithful have followed his instructions. Will they show restraint in the face of this latest assault?

Already there have been reprisal attacks against dozens of Sunni mosques. The "tangled ball of string" that is Iraq could quickly unravel.

According to one respected newspaper editor I spoke to, Iraqis smell civil war in the air. He had no official figures, but he said Iraqi's, who are able, have been leaving the country in significant numbers recently according to his government sources. He pointed out that three members of his own staff had left the country in recent days. He said he, too, was contemplating leaving Baghdad.

U.S. diplomats here have been pressuring Iraqi's to form a government of "National Unity." They argue that it is the only way forward. Today, however, was a big step backwards.

[Benbow]

1. Sorry but I think this was US psysops - keeping the Iraqis busy,

killing each other. While the huge new US bases are completed.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. "Iraq is almost certainly headed towards civil war"

I think it's more like Iraq is certainly headed towards civil war

[calimary]

3. Sounds to me almost as though Iraq is IN civil war.

Already.

I see neither peace nor freedom nor democracy nor "better-off's" of any sort on the march anywhere here. What I do see on the march are chaos, death, and destruction. We haven't made them better off. At all.

Just struck me that you can add something else to the litany of what bush is not. For one thing - he certainly isn't a Boy Scout. Boy Scouts are encouraged to leave the place better than they found it.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. Pundits are talking 15 year Lebanon style conflict.

[obreaslan]

4. See, we are spreading Freedom! Everyone can have a 9/11!!

In a free society people are free to have their shit blown up by crazy terrorists!

It's working!!!

:sarcasm:

[mattclearing]

5. LOL n/t

[bainz]

8. clever....lol. n/t

[Ksec]

7. Yep, the civil war has begun

No other point has had them targetting holy sites. Its over, sad. Bushs fault solely. Him and his idiots in Congress.

[booksenkatz]

9. I'm sure Babs would say that things are working out very well for them!

And a kick.
:kick: