Civil War?
You can read CNN or the BBC about the bombing of the Al-Askariya “Golden Mosque” in Samarra, but Juan Cole recommends Attack deepens Iraq’s divide by Dan Murphy, staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor.
Of course, Professor Cole is the go-to commentator on these events, and Riverbend of Baghdad Burning provides the reaction of an average Iraqi.
When reading about these events it helps to understand that there isn’t a single Islamic religion anymore than there’s a single Christian religion. Wikipedia’s Divisions of Islam is as good as a starting point as anything.
Osama bin Laden is a Wahhabi Sunni and Yemeni Arab born in Saudi Arabia.
The Taliban are Deobandi Sunnis and generally Afghani Pashtuns.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is a Salafi Sunni and Jordanian Arab.
The Syrian Baathist Party is primarily composed of Alawi Shi’ites.
In Lebanon, Reagan picked a fight with the Druze.
The differences are important. The Salafi don’t accept the Shi’ia as Muslims, and al-Zarqawi is probably behind the bombing.
So, it starts. Shi’ia are starting to expand the attacks on Sunnis that has already been occurring in and around Baghdad as payback for what happened under Saddam. The Kurds are pushing back in the North.
It is well past time for the US to leave, because these people are going to have to work this out for themselves. You can’t act as the peacekeeper in a war you started.
