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.