Golden dome gone, Mosque a shambles
AM – Iraq violence escalates after Golden Mosque bombing — The were a bunch of holy sites in Iraq that it was always feared the USA forces would accidentally blow up and create a massive problem in the worldwide Ummah. Well, one of those sites is this particular Mosque which is a seriously important Shi’ite monument and holy place. So some Sunni’s apparently blew it to smithereens. All hell broke loose with various Sunni mosques being leveled and torn to pieces afterwards — as the prelude to a true civil war is breaking out. The coverage of this event in the US press is rather “eh, so?”
One diversion has been the humorous situation with the Dubai government taking over a bunch of US ports in a deal done behind closed doors. For a hint about this: Neil Bush got a bunch of cash from Dubai (’nuff said). All this will be beaten to death while everyone ignores this situation in Iraq. It’s incredible to me that this isn’t the biggest news story in our country. Aren’t we at war there? This is probably as close to hitting the World Trade Center as you can get in Iraq and the media is harping on everything but this story. Hey, I’m as big a part and a member of big media as almost anyone and I am stunned by today’s editors. I can’t imagine what goes on in the newsroom meetings. (Although I have a few ideas).
Now I’ve always has this weird theory in the back of my head. It’s tells me that the only reason for the war in the first place is to let a holy war between the Shi’ites and the Sunni break out in the Middle East. While the Shi’ites in Iran have given us more subtle grief, it’s the Sunni’s where all the Salafists (Wahhabist) radicals come from and these radicals hate the Shi’ites with a passion. What happens if they go after each other? Let’s face it; they have wanted to do this for a while.
And we’re hearing that another 47 bodies have been found in 10 burnt out cars south-east of the capital. These men were apparently factory workers. They pulled up at a check point when they were all shot.
We’ve also heard a leading Arab TV journalist covering this shrine bombing and her two crew were shot and killed and of course, 11 suspected Sunni militants who were in the Basra jail, they were marched out by Shi’ite militiamen and then shot in the street.
Most of these men were foreigners, suspected insurgents from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, those sorts of places.
So even by Iraq’s bloody standards it’s been certainly a violent day.
related links:
Basic story
Good analysis from Asian Times
What happens if they go after each other?I believe it was called the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980’s. The only winner in the Iraq war is Iran.
I’ve been wondering for a while if this isn’t another Bush controlled burn to distract from the bigger fire. An additional benefit is this gives Republicans in congress a chance to distance themselves from a lame duck president with slumping poll numbers as mid terms approach. The port deal might make Bush look bad but not half as bad as the Democrats will make him look if they get control of either congressional house.
It is probably worth saying that the odds are extremely good that this bombing wasn’t done by Iraqis. Most Iraqi Sunni also revere this site. This looks like Al Qaida to me.
Im not surprised that this isnt covered as much on the news as we’d hope it to be, but hey, The chick missing in Aruba is WAAAAAY more important than that of International Security….RIGHT???
International security? BORING.
“I’ve been wondering for a while if this isn’t another Bush controlled burn to distract from the bigger fire. ”
Oh jesus christ. Sun rises: BUSH CONSPIRACY. Sun Sets: KARL ROVE DID IT. Theres’ something to the Neil/Dubai connection, something that deserves light shone upon it. Don’t dilute the issue with radical lefty lunacy.
Only one tv station here in the UK covered this as a prelude to civil war. That was the hardly watched Channel 5. It’ll be interesting to see how the world power spins the situation in Iraq now. How can this be better than Saddam? I’m not a fan on Saddam at all but Iraq is a catalyst for worldwide unrest. That should be headline news!
it did not take long , Cant help some one that dont want help
This looks like Al Qaida to me.
Maybe, but only in a very loose sense. Frankly it’s just as likely that it was extremist Sunni’s too. You can’t use the “most” argument when dealing with extremist terrorists.
For Example: Most Iraqi’s really don’t want to hurt Allied Troops, they just want to be able to rebuild their lives…but still the suicide bombers and resistance continues.
Most Sunni’s thought the mosque was a work of art, but all it takes is a small, well organised group, to screw things up.
Does anyone still think that the war in Iraq isn’t going to go the way of the war in Vietnam?
I suppose that the US media hasn’t been very loud about increasing attacks in Afghanistan either. It’s been a big story here in Canada because for the first time Canadians have just been sent there on a fighting, rather than a primarily peacekeeping and reconstruction, mission.
But, hey, the baseball season is coming soon and that will give everybody something else to think about.
To expand from #1: The Deep Throat rule of thumb still holds, e.g., “follow the money”.
Why expand the war? Iran is sitting on the world’s largest natural gas reserves. The Oil Patch boys and their flunkeys in the White House and Congress get their rocks off over oil at $60/barrel. They see nothing but smiles coming if they can get natural gas up to $30/Mcf.
You don’t have to own Iraqi oil to make the profits. The contents of an oil tanker are bought and sold about eight times from shipping port to dellvery tank farm. That drives the price in the Permian Basin as high as the stuff arriving in the UK. The same will hold true for Oklahoma natural gas.
A comment to Hahnarama (Message 9):
Why do you sound so indignant and complain about the “hypocracy” of others when the exodus of many Moslems and other Arabs from the Middle East is probably directly related to US policy. Arabs are leaving a part of the world that is steeped in violence for the same reason that Vietnamese people came to the US and Europe as a direct result of the war there.
The US has been responsible for turmoil in the Middle East since the fifties when the CIA got rid of the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran and replaced him with the dictatorial Shah. Later, America supplied money, training and weapons to the Mujahadeen (including Bin Laddin) in Afghanistan who were fighting the Soviets. America continues to support with money and weapons the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia which are dictatorships — in both countries many of their citizens live in abject poverty while a handful bask in riches. And, of course, the US continues to give Israel unbelievable quantities of money, planes, tanks and helicopters that are being used to subjugate the Palestinians.
I certainly wouldn’t want to stay in places like that and I suspect that you wouldn’t either.
Ref message #5
Bill clinton did it right Monica refused to see him again! I know that to be true. Anne Coulter told me. Verified by Elizabeth Hasselbeck?
Most bothersome issue to me is that I’ve yet to see a picture of the bombed Mosque on TV, only “before” pictures. What’s the fear of airing the truth: That most Iraqis have gone ape shit, and the nation is destined to self-destruct.
The ‘war’ is lost. There is no way that the USA is going to stabilize that country. No amount of American manpower and military might will stabilize that country.
My prediction: Iran invades in mass force within the next 90 days. We don’t fight them (too bloody and nothing to gain),so we pull back. Iran takes over and establishes (forces) some kind of stability.
It may be for the best… if you know the history of Cambodia, you know that the bad guys (Vietnam) actually saved that country from it’s own final descent into hell.
We certainly can’t save Iraq from itself.
Muslims leave their own countries for jobs. Just like Mexicans come across our borders in the millions, for JOBS. The Muslim community in Europe was imported to fill jobs 30 and 40 years ago that are no longer there.
They weren’t leaving because of war(some may have) since most of them were in place long before the present round of fighting. They left to try to give themselves and their children a better life. Due to their religious beliefs they have had trouble assimulating into western society.
I’m no fan of Isreal, but they didn’t force the Palistinians out of Isreal, they left on their own, and when they didn’t win the war and were not able to return they became violent. I get a bit miffed when I hear about Isreal’s violence against the Palistinians, but people forget the violence that has been heaped upon the Isrealies. There are no clean hands in the Middle East.
The problems in that region came long before the U.S. took any interest in the area, it came from the Europeans when they colonised the areas that once belonged to the Ottomans. Creating countries and borders that didn’t take into account the actual makeup of the populace. They created a bunch of colonies full of people that had never got along since the dawn of mankind. So no surprise that the area is a constant source of problems.
The idea of letting them split into the 3 natural areas isn’t all that bad actually. The Sunni area would need help finacially, but then each group would be in control of their own destinies.
Ever consider that it was an inside job? By either Shites Radicals, CIA, Iran, or, possible a country that wanted to make the US look worse than it does now?
Make the US look worse? No need to do anything. Just elect Jeb after George. Sit back and enjoy it.
I was in Europe in 1999 when there were huge demonstrations against the bombing to support the terrorists in Kosovo (according to CIA, the largest terror group in th eworld). In Rome, we had 2-3 of them with 150-200,000 and Athens had almost half a million to receive Clinton, soccer players across Italy, Greece, South American and Asia revealed their no war shirts across hte globe at the same time when they scored goals…..and not one word.
Trust me, this is NOTHING new. CNN treats the news like Pravda….
Im happy your upset but I guarantee you will forget it and continue believing that our news sources give us all the info.
How much of our foreign news comes from AP/
I heard a reporter on Sporting News radio once say 92%.
Now THAT is scary.
We have been warned about a civil war in Iraq for some time now. It has been the dubya administration that has been denying it.
I saw this reported on CNN with the appropriate comments about the increased likelihood of civil war. This is just another mass killing in Iraq to most people. Nothing new here.