Thank GOD America Won the Iraq War!

[DeathToTheOil]

(ZUBAIR, Iraq) — A bomb killed at least 53 Shiite pilgrims near the southern port city of Basra on Saturday, an Iraqi official said. It was the latest in a series of attacks during Shiite religious commemorations that have killed scores of people and threaten to further increase sectarian tensions just weeks after the U.S. withdrawal.

The attack happened on the last of the 40 days of Arbaeen, when hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from Iraq and abroad visit the Iraqi city of Karbala, as well as other holy sites.

Saturday's blast occurred near the town of Zubair as pilgrims marched toward the Shiite Imam Ali shrine on the outskirts of the town, said Ayad al-Emarah, a spokesman for the governor of Basra province. The shrine is an enclave within an enclave — a Shiite site on the edge of a mostly Sunni town in an otherwise mostly Shiite province.

There were conflicting reports on the source of the blast. Al-Emarah said the explosion was caused either by a suicide attacker or a roadside bomb. But an Iraqi military intelligence officer who is investigating the attack said it was a roadside bomb, noting that the road from Basra to Zubair being used by pilgrims had been closed to traffic. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the media.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2104503,00.html#ixzz1jZ486Od7

[tabatha]

1. I don't think anyone won.

It was losses all around.

Sunni and Shia used to live in peace before the Iraq war.

[rhett o rick]

5. The War profiteers won big. nm

[tabatha]

7. Yes.

I was thinking inside the box of people versus people.

Cheney corp won big.

[PO2_Mike]

9. you might want to recheck...

your history.

Those sects haven't gotten along since the 1500's.

[tabatha]

12. I was going by what Riverbend said - if you remember her.

[tabatha]

13. Riverbend

"I remember Baghdad before the war - one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were - we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night" - Riverbend, April 26, 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riverbend_(blogger)

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Yes but that was for one reason, and his name was sadamn and his secret police

http://www.aina.org/news/20120114115359.htm

If you want I can link to a few history books.

The enmity is long standing and part of Islam.

I got to clarify, since this did not sound right... it is part of the history of religion. Christianity went through these religious wars too... in fact the last of those was in Northern Ireland and Londonberry, and Judaism went though them as well, but well in it's past (and possibly in it's future)

It's the problem of claiming to know the whole truth and claiming others really don't get it.

[tabatha]

17. riverbend

The English and Afrikaans speaking people in SA had a long-standing animosity between each other from the time of the Boer war when Afrikaans women and children were put into concentration camps, and thousands died. Over the years, as people learned to work together, many intermarried, the friction lessened. It never got to the state of war. But the undercurrent was there for a long time.

What I stated was that the Iraqis lived in peace until the Iraq war (correct), and my opinions about their peacefrul relationships were formed by reading Riverbend. That is why I said I went by what Riverbend said (more expert than anyone here). At no time did I say it was the whole truth. And just as historically the Afrikaans and English speakers in South Africa had huge differences, these lessened in time. Athough, the Afrikaners are still very cultish to this day.

Possibly because Sunni and Shia had lived together peacefully under Saddam for a good number of years, where they intermarried, lived next door to each other, if there had been a peaceful transition as in South Africa, it would not have devolved into war or bombings.

There are still huge undercurrents in South Africa. Hopefully, they will never amount to what is going on in Iraq. I do believe that the war in Iraq is overwhelmingly responsible for these historical animosities being rekindled and being so destructive.

But that is just my flawed logic.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Perhaps, and if we had an arab spring event, perhaps

but the way things have evolved really old animosities have re-emerged. Look at Syria... a very similar scenario is starting to play out... and that one is done by Bashar al Assad to keep power.

Now don't get me wrong, LONG TERM, as societies secularize (that is the key, and why that happened under Sadam) yes, they will learn to live with each other. Or as I like to half joke... if we get an alien invasion and we all go... wait Sunni, Shia, Catholic Protestant, Hindu-Muslim (Major fault lines) does not matter. We are all crunchy and taste good with catchup to our new overlords.

The Arc of history tells me we are moving to that lessened conflict... but in Iraq, due to this invasion, they took a few steps back. Sadam was a monster, but... he forced a secular state which took a lot of power from the Mullahs (shia, sunni does not matter). Who is the most influential man right now? He happens to be a cleric, and not precisely a progressive one... yup, those do exist, but I would not call Sadr, one of them.

So it will happen... the question is how long.

Or perhaps our overlords will force humans... long term we are seeing actually less casualties from war... and long term we might even see an end to it. But SHORT TERM... it will be nasty in Iraq for a few years and I fear a lost generation... and we are responsible.

[tabatha]

19. Yes. Good points.

I was hoping that global warming would be the cause of global unification.

But perhaps, the internet is helping.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. It is helping

see the Egyptian unions buying pizza from Ryan's in Wisconsin...

And the kids here identifying with the kids there from OWS...

So it is helping to bring down barriers.

[PO2_Mike]

22. Ah, yes

Riverbend...An anonymous source of dubious/unsubstantiated information.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. I am sure Eric Prince would argue

Oh and Sunni and Shia living together? No not really. Until those borders were drawn, well tribes kept their distance for a good damn reason.

[tabatha]

14. see #13

[PearliePoo2]

2. I think most people here knew this was going to happen and it's happened rather quickly too.

Saddam with his tyranny kept the lid on the violence.
Once he was gone, (and our occupying military too), Iraq's population can resume their centuries-old Sunni/Shiite murdering and hatred of each other.
What a stinking waste.

[Old and In the Way]

4. A cursory look through the DU forums on the run-up to the 2003 invasion confirms your point.

Yes, Hussein was an iron-fisted thug. But that's how the Sunni's Shia's and Kurds managed to coexist there. I'm afraid Iraq's future is as a balkanized country, fractured into 3 buffer zones that will be under the control of Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey/Kurdistan. This was a stupid war for the Bush/Cheney administration to prosecute...a monumental waste of soldiers and tax-dollars that did nothing to better the Iraqi people's live...just made their lives worse and their future dimmer.

[tabatha]

15. see #13

[DeathToTheOil]

6. Yes

I saw an Iraqi man being interviewed on CTV last week. He said, "Under Saddam, no, we couldn't speak out against the regime, but we could walk the streets safely a 4 PM. This is no longer the case."

[zbdent]

3. This is why the Republicans say we couldn't leave Iraq ...

instead of 53 dead Shiite pilgrims ...

we'd probably have 53 (or more) dead U.S. soldiers ...

[Gman]

8. We did? I think we're like 10 - 3 now

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. What you mean we did not leave a STABLE Iraq?

Who knew?

[Rex]

21. I am happy we are moving the troops out of Iraq

and hopefully back home. Next we need to leave Afghanistan and focus on our problems at home. Iraq was a farce caused by warmongers that hasn't even started as a debate yet. We have our fortress..er..embassy there now. I am sure we hope and pray the Iraqis forget we were ever there. We didn't win shit, not until the war criminals that started the war in Iraq based on lies about WMDs face the law for their injustices.