[agricola]

the current view is that this is the work of "Saddam loyalists" - but I'd warrant this, and the attacks on UK and US forces, are more likely down to Sunni religious terrorists who are aligning themselves with al-Qaeda.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3191137.stm

[Destructo6]

Haven't heard a peep on the other news services.

It's sickening they'd bomb the tomb of Ali. It would be like Protestants bombing the Vatican.

[FPrice]

Saddam Hussein...

The man who set fire to Kuwati oil fields in an effort to ravage another Arab country.

Who set oil fires in his own country (which would make him an environmental criminal according to many environmental groups).

For whom many terrorists are bombing the Iraqi infrastructure to make life as terrible as possible for millions of Iraqi citizens.

And now they are bombing Iraqi clerics.

And there are those who still insist that we had no business removing this man from power.

[agricola]

fprice,

but thats the thing - it seems to me that its as least as likely that this is the work of fundamentalist Sunni terrorists as it is "saddam loyalists" - lets face it, who is going to be loyal to Saddam given that his regime based itself on fear and graft (both of which the Coalition has removed)?

[Baba Louie]

So is this a Sunni vs. Shi'a thing or a strike against US allied (kinda) leadership, because it reads like there were no troops near the mosque at the time?

Either way, its a no-win for US/UK admin goals.

Whether the war is/was the right thing for the right reason, the right thing for the wrong reason, wrong thing for the right reason, etc., it's becoming clear that due to the religious/political pressures between the two factions of Saudi (Sunni) and Iran (Shi'a) religious orders, any American-British backed goals are now placed between the proverbial rock and the hard spot.

Look for long term mission creep to occur, Bush and Blair to suffer politically, more mid-east dissension (as if thats possible...and I fear it is) and much more mayhem as the election year gets closer.

Maybe it looked like a can of whoop-az that GWB/TB opened, but I'm thinking more along the lines of Pandora's Box.

Time will tell.

Adios

[El Tejon]

Are not "Sunni terrorists" and "Saddam loyalists" one and the same???

Another indicia of the dangers of Iraq coming apart like the Evil Empire after the kindly, old Butcher of Baghdad is gone? The Bloods and the Crips (Turkmen and Kurds) were taking potshots at each other up north, why not continue the fun in the south?

[Destructo6]

The banter heard on the various news channels seems to indicate al-Queda.

Iraqi Sunnis probably wouldn't have much to gain but the ire of Iraqi Shi'ites.

Wahabbis (typical of hardcore al-Queda) consider Shi'ism to be false Islam, so by bombing the tomb of Ali they get to stir up a hornet's nest and kill the infidel (Shi'ites) at the same time.

Can't really rule anything out at this early point, but this seems to be the current line of thought.

[LoneStranger]

Then to it might indicate that the US/UK are having success in their efforts in Iraq.

If we were not winning the hearts and minds conflict there would be no need for this kind of attack. The better tactic would be to allow us to continue a losing strategy.

As for the actual group responsible, with all the willing dupes and pawns over there even a scorecard won't help.

[Duncan Idaho]

I will refrain from speculating on who is to blame.

The death-cult nuts, their apologists, et al. may want to wring their hands and "study" the dynamics of what El Tejon so rightly calls "God's monkey house"; in a misguided attempt to understand these fools, but I for one am done. The inhabitants of the middle-east are more than welcome (and capable) of living as modern human beings.

Should they choose to live in the ignorance and darkness of the 7th century's barbaric and ugly past, so be it. If that truly is the case, then I reckon that to date no one has devised a bomb capable of killing enough of them fast enough for my taste.

[makarov1]

Notice the pattern of the recent car bombs in Iraq. First the Jordanian Embassy, then the U.N., and now a sacred Islamic shrine in the holy city of Najaf. One thing these sites all have in common is the absense of security. 'Soft targets' are like low hanging fruit for the Sunni terrorist/Sadaam loyalist. I lump the two groups together as one because they both have a vested interest in ousting coalition forces. The stakes are very high for Sunni Muslims, who were given preferential treatment under Sadaam while Sadaam brutally opressed the Shiite majority. From a Sunni perspective, being under the rule of a Shiite majority in Iraq, under a U.S. backed puppet government, is NOT an option.

The stakes are extraordinarily high for the recently ousted regime. There is no 'we'll get 'em next time'. When and if the coalition restores order, the game is over. Of course the Sunnis and Sadaam loyalists are well-aware that life is not a game. The winner takes all and the loser loses everything.

[Bigjake]

shame we can't get the rest of them to blow themselves and their A**hole buddys up without bothering our boys

[Standing Wolf]

Should they choose to live in the ignorance and darkness of the 7th century's barbaric and ugly past, so be it.

That'd be fine with me, too, if they'd all just stay home.

[telomerase]

>That'd be fine with me, too, if they'd all just stay home.

Well, they are at home. It's our troops that invaded them, our bombs that killed thousands of Iraqi civilians, and our occupation force that keeps Iraq in civil disorder so that Al-Quaida can recruit there (which they couldn't do under Saddam).

I mean, I don't like religious fanatics (or wacko US-financed dictators) any more than the next guy. But Iraqi troops aren't in Texas going door-to-door looking for WMDs (and if they were, they'd actually FIND some good ones on OUR airfields!) If they were kicking down our doors, there'd be plenty of violence here in the US.

As far as anonymous bombings go, you can't solve them using just cui bono. Cui bono in Iraq would say that the Mossad did this bombing; anyone care to make that assertion?

[fallingblock]

Which the coalition is pursuing at the moment....

That's the point, telomerase. They are fignting us in Iraq, NOT in Texas or any other part of the U.S.:D

"Bring it on...";)

[telomerase]

>That's the point, telomerase. They are fignting us in Iraq, NOT in Texas or any other part of the U.S.

They weren't fighting us at all before we invaded. They WERE fighting the Iranians back in the 1980s and keeping the Sunni-Shiite split going... now we've forced them all to unify. And we're paying for everything; have you been following the escalation of US tax money going to build the next Iraqi bureaucracy? What is it, 50 billion just for this year, just for Iraq? And that's not even counting the "private" money that will flow in from the money-center banks once the Iraqi foreign-aid state is set up, then be paid off by the Fed under the Monetary Control Act of 1980.

There are certainly arguments that can be made for interventionist policies (for instance, I wouldn't say that everything the British Empire did in the 1700s was bad; they did successfully move all those criminals to the Southern Hemisphere where they couldnt cause trouble). But the real situation since WWII is that the US pays for both the totalitarian governments AND the interventions that are supposedly to counter them, and I for one am tired of paying for it.

[Destructo6]

They WERE fighting the Iranians back in the 1980s and keeping the Sunni-Shiite split going
That's been going on since 632, so I believe our contribution to that split is near zero.

[Baba Louie]

OT but...

(for instance, I wouldn't say that everything the British Empire did in the 1700s was bad; they did successfully move all those criminals to the Southern Hemisphere where they couldnt cause trouble)

Before the Brits did that, they dropped 'em all off in a little known place, a colony they called "Georgia".

Continue back On Topic, please...

Apparently a newly rleased tape says that the elusive Saddam H. himself had nuttin to do with last weeks bombing, hundreds of thousands of people marching... a little upset.

Spin time for coalition forces to get on the airwaves and direct the hatred... hmmm, where should we direct the anger?

I understand that the Iraqi lap-dogs (did I say that?) have asked the FBI for a little help here, please. Maybe they can solve this one as well as the Erie Bank Robber necklace bomber. I'm sure that our gov't will overlook the jurisdictional discrepancies between CONUS and the mid-east since we seem to have the FBI in Russia as well lately.

Adios