Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006 | 8:40 a.m.
The Wednesday morning bombing of the Askariya Shrine north of Baghdad in Samarra, Iraq, has placed prospects of much-discussed U.S. troop withdrawals from that country in jeopardy.
The shrine, sacred to Shiite Muslims, was built in 868 A.D. and contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, father and son, who were persecuted for their faith. The shrine's most distinctive feature, a magnificent golden dome completed in 1905, was destroyed in the blast.
Thousands of enraged Shiites poured into the streets after the bombing, determined to exact revenge against Sunni Muslims, whom they blame. Numerous reports from Iraq say the country has never been as close to all-out civil war as it is now.
The violence could get much worse, given that outside agitators are fanning the flames. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for example, spoke Thursday before thousands in southwestern Iran and blamed the explosion on the United States and Israel.
The situation is far removed from November, when the Bush administration hailed Iraq's constitutional and parliamentary elections as milestones that would lead to a unified Iraq. At that time, as well, President Bush was effusive about his plan to train Iraqi military and police forces. "As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down," he said.
Today the news is about Iraqi highway patrol officers, linked to Shiite militia groups, who have formed themselves into death squads and are leaving behind them a trail of tortured bodies, mostly those of Sunnis. And The New York Times, reporting Thursday on the bloody mayhem following the shrine bombing, wrote: "Shiite militia members flooded the streets of Baghdad, firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at Sunni mosques while Iraqi Army soldiers who had been called out to stop the violence stood helpless nearby."
It's hard to believe that just a few months ago U.S. military commanders in Iraq, along with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were talking positively about substantial troop reductions in Iraq as early as this spring because Bush's policies, including training, were going so well.
The fact is that sectarian fighting, and insurgent attacks on U.S. forces, civilians, journalists, contractors and Iraqi Army and police recruits, have been growing ceaselessly ever since Bush declared the end to major fighting in May 2003. It is apparent now that Bush is either being naive or shading the truth in his frequent declarations that his Iraq policies are succeeding.
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