Posted on 04/07/2006 10:21:05 AM PDT by jmc1969
A new massacre has struck Baghdad when three suicide bombers attacked the Buratha mosque in Baghdad this afternoon. "More than 70 people were killed and more than 150 were injured" a doctor from Baghdad's medical city told me in a phone call.
A closer look at the targeted mosque makes me think that the ramifications of this massacre can possibly be much worse than the immediate death and pain this terror attack brought, the Buratha mosque is not an ordinary mosque, it has a special religious value for Shia Iraqis as it's thought to be one of the places where Imam Ali stayed and prayed.
But that's not the most important thing because this mosque is of considerable political significance, the preacher in this mosque is Jalal Addin al-Sagheer, a cleric from the SCIRI who was the first SCIRI member to publicly urge Ibrahim al-Jafari to withdraw his nomination for office.
This mosque is one of the headquarters of the SCIRI and its clerical wing in Baghdad, even that Abdul Aziz al-Hakeem's son Ammar al-Hakkem preaches occasionally in this mosque when sheikh Jalal is not available.
A military confrontation between the Sadr militias and the American (and possibly Iraqi) army is imminent and it's the Sadrists themselves who are pushing in this direction and preparing their forces for a battle they want to have to disrupt the political process and drag Iraq into an irreversible state of civil war.
There are powers in the region that want this to happen, primarily Syria and Iran but I think they realized that a Sadr Vs. US battle is not enough and can only result in a big defeat for Sadr without reaching their desired objective of ruining Iraq.
So, it is logical to think that Iran and Syria would try to drag as many Iraqi parties as possible into this battle and the first candidate they would choose would be the SCIRI, the powerful Shia party that is not getting along well with Sadr and has recently sided with the Kurds, Sunni and secular powers in calling for Jafari to step away and even considering forming a united political front with them.
Another possible theory is that this attack is a warning message to the SCIRI that they must stay friends with Sadr, support Jafari and abort any plan to form a unity government with the Kurds, Sunni and secular parties.
If either theory is correct, the attack is aimed at stopping Iraq from having a government and prolonging the instability for as long as possible.
Let's also take a look at the planning for the attack that is very well studied too, the suicide bombers did not start striking during Friday prayers when the place is usually heavily guarded and security personnel are at high alert but the first strike came more than 15 minutes later when an attack is less expected and after guards felt they accomplished their mission in protecting the worshippers during the main ceremony to be followed by the other two bombings that took advantage of the state of panic created by the first bombing. This in addition to the use of disguise has of course made the breach easier to make.
The attack was no doubt carried out by al-Qaeda but the target was chosen from the powers across the borders.
LOL
You really think Zarqawi was doing that personally?
he was in Jordan getting "medical attention".
Would you like to be added to my ping list on these Iraqi postings as they are posted?
When I say beheading people I didn't mean personally.
Those aren't really static and I'm not there anymore.
It **USED** to be that most of Sadr's forces and base was in the south. This is because of 3 reasons that I was able to discern...
1) (and the biggest reason) Al-Sistani was in poor health. He was having Heart issues and wasn't even in the country when the Battle of Najaf (August 2004) occured. That battle only ended when Sadr's forces Fragged him and he more or less quit and left the Mosque in complete and total disarray (decapitated bodies, descreations, etc).
2) We went into this thing expecting to deal with his father, not Mookie himself. Mookie may or may not (I think he did) have had something to do with his murder.
3) it's quite possible that we didn't react to him as quickly as we needed too. Our attention was a bit diverted (we wanted Zarqawi's arse on a platter) and he had some time. Just like any politician, he has offices in every place he thinks he represents.
oh....
he wasn't there, it was his flunkys....
Although the guy reading the statement claimed to be Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, he wasn't even Jordanian.
:)
Yup, I remember Octavia Nassar's report on CNN at the time.
Well for a while after the Najaf battle, Sadr city decided that it didn't want to bear his name.
But then for whatever reason it was changed back.
He was some support in the slum, but it isn't anything near what he has down south.
Just want to thank you all for a mature, educational and positive thread. It reminded me of what FreeRepublic is all about.
Goodness, I don't get my information from newscasters. I have a much better source for my information.
Actually, I think Southack is aware of your current location. I think his post was just a combo ping/post.
LOL! I just looked in here this moring and saw all of these idiot posts at me and just decided to go after them. (It's therapeutic...gets those frustrations out. HAHA)
I know Southack wasn't picking at me. I enjoy his posts and always have.
Yes, it's been happening to me more times than I care to count. And the ones who deliberately take my remarks out of context are the real winners. I don't even see what they get out of doing that.
I figure these n00Bs who question my patriotism or my percpetions are just some unhappy, bitter people and they have my pity more than anything else.
But I've got to nip at them a little bit as well, on the off-chance that they just might think about what they're saying and doing and just maybe learn something.
It's a long shot, but I feel duty-bound to do it. ;-)
Thanks for your understanding.
Understanding?!? I feel your pain in the worst way. Lately, I've been the king of self-abuse as I wade into that crap. For the same reason as you. With the same result. Today, I had someone with no military experience whatsoever tell me I should be ashamed of mine because I didn't agree with her stance on immigration. It was all I could do to not hit the abuse button and watch her flush away. But, like you, I have this faint hope that somehow, they might just learn something. Unfortunately, that hope is growing increasingly dim.
That's the problem right there. There are too many people who do NOT speak from any kind of experience expounding on subjects about which they know little. They grab a few sound bites from the news, form an opinion (usually sprinkled with the bias entrenched in the aforementioned sound bites) and run with it. When we disagree based on true experiences, they begin hurling insults and questioning our patriotism, or in your case, your military service.
They deliberately take our remarks out of context in order to back up their convoluted rantings, thinking we're too dumb to see what they're doing.
FR didn't used to have such a large contingent of the ignorant and obnoxious. I'm very disppointed in the influx of trolls we have experienced over the last year or two.
Hang in there and thank your for your service!
Same to you.
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