This is very bad. Like civil war/ no turning back/ Archduke Ferdinand bad. Here’s Robert Worth’s lead in the NYT today:
A powerful bomb shattered the golden dome at one of Iraq’s most revered
Shiite shrines on Wednesday morning, setting off a day of sectarian
fury in which mobs formed across Iraq to chant for revenge and attacked
dozens of Sunni mosques.
A shocking, brazen, crazy thing to do. This is not just another Iraqi bombing:
The shrine is one of four major Shiite shrines in Iraq, and the site
has special meaning because 2 of the 12 imams revered by mainstream
Shiites are buried there: Ali al-Hadi, who died in A.D. 868 and his
son, the 11th imam, Hassan al-Askari. Also, according to legend, the
12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, known as the "Hidden Imam," was at the
site of the shrine before he disappeared.
Shades of April Glaspie here:
Most Iraqi leaders attributed the attack to terrorists bent on exploiting sectarian rifts, but some also blamed the United States
for failing to prevent it. Even the leader of Iraq’s main Shiite
political alliance said he thought Zalmay Khalilzad, the American
ambassador to Iraq, bore some responsibility. The Shiite leader, Abdul
Aziz al-Hakim, said Mr. Khalilzad’s veiled threat on Monday to withdraw
American support if Iraqis could not form a nonsectarian government
helped provoke the bombing. "This declaration gave a green light for
these groups to do their operation, so he is responsible for a part of
that," Mr. Hakim said at a news conference.
Ouch.