“There’s still a tendency to see these things in Sunni-Shia terms. But the Middle East is going to have to overcome that.” – Condoleezza Rice, January 2007.
That’s the kind of superficial and clueless analysis that still prevails in Washington, and that was before Obama. Yet no number of foreign policy disasters seems to be enough.
“Iraqi officials: Bombing near Sunni mosque south of Baghdad kills 3 worshippers,” from the Associated Press, May 10:
BAGHDAD “” A bombing at a Sunni mosque near Baghdad on Friday killed three worshippers and wounded seven others, police said, reflecting rising sectarian tensions across Iraq.
Insurgents have been targeting Sunni mosques following a deadly crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest site in Hawija town last month. Sunnis were protesting perceived discrimination by the Shiite-dominated Baghdad government.
The surge in sectarian-based fighting raises concerns that the nation is on a path back to the fighting of the last decade that approached a state of civil war.
Police said a bomb went off after Friday mid-day Muslim prayers as worshippers were leaving the al-Sultan mosque in Mahaweel, 55 kilometers (35 miles) south of the capital.
Also Friday, police said a bomb explosion struck an army patrol in western Iraq, killing one soldier and wounding two others.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the mosque attack….