“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.
Seven years later, Washington is even more clueless than it was then.
“Explosions at Iraq election rally in Baghdad ‘kill 31,'” BBC, April 25, 2014:
At least 31 people have been killed in Iraq as a series of blasts targeted a Shia election rally in Baghdad.
Several people were seriously injured in the attack, which took place at a campaign rally for the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq party.
The attack comes less than a week before Iraqis are due to head to the polls in parliamentary elections.
Iraq has been enduring the worst unrest since it pulled back from the brink of civil war in 2008.
A statement attributed to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIL) has claimed the group was behind the attack, but the report has not yet been verified.
Three bombs exploded as people left the rally, says the BBC’s Nahed Abouzeid in Baghdad.
The first two blasts were caused by truck bombs and the third by a roadside bomb.
Desperate act
Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq is backed by Iran and is a public supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
This is likely to have antagonised Sunni groups in both countries, our correspondent says.
Senior Ahl al-Haq official, Wahab al-Taie, said after the attack: “This is a desperate act that will not stop us from moving on and challenging. They wanted to send us a message and they did, but that will not deter us.”
The rally had been addressed by cleric Sheik Qais al-Khazali, who told the crowd: “We are ready and prepared to defend this nation. Let it be known that Asaib will be the remedy.”
Next Wednesday’s election will be the first since the US pulled out combat troops in 2011.
More than 9,000 candidates will compete for 328 parliamentary seats, but there will be no voting in parts of Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where security forces still battle Islamist and tribal militants for control of the provincial capital Ramadi and nearby Fallujah.
John C. Barile says
Speaking for myself, of course, I do’t gloat or find smug satisfaction at my enemies’ internecine warfare; barbarous indiscriminate killing and the suffering of innocents along the way gives me no joy. I only know, however, that militant Sunni or militant Shi’a alike hate us even more than they hate each other.
John C. Barile says
I don’t, that is.
mariam rove says
yes. infidels and jews are hated the most. you are correct. M
defcon 5 says
Why don’t you try preaching your sanctimonious morality in any muslime state?
John C. Barile says
Sanctimonious morality, D5? Do you really think I’m some squeamish milquetoast? You really to think I’m some mushy pacifist who would handicap our armed forces, say, with self-endangering PC rules of engagement and self-defeating objectives? I’m emphatically not.
Have you perhaps served abroad–what sets your perspective above the rest? So, what then is the point of your scoffing hostility and abrasive sarcasm?
Do you sneer at people who might be more fully reasoned and articulate than you are?
Mirren10 says
It doesn’t give me any *joy*, either, but neither do I care.
I would much rather they get on with murdering each other, than murdering *us*.
Wellington says
Note to Condoleezza: They haven’t ovecome it yet. It’s been going on since 661 A.D. and, just speaking for myself, I don’t see any “overcoming” on the horizon.
Wellington says
I would just like to add that I’m far from sure that I do want to see Sunnis and Shiites desisting from destroying each other. Those that do want this perhaps should ponder the wisdom of that old maxim: “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.”
If Sunnis and Shiites really did stop hating and killing each other (which ain’t gonna’ happen, let’s be real here), then they might turn their pathological, psychopathic lethal tendencies even more upon us non-believers. Just sayin’.
bill says
Rice was one of the most useless Sec. States US ever has had. Kerry looks like a genius by comparison. All she did was run around saying what Cheney told her to say and charming world leaders with her grin and nice a***. She should have stuck to piano playing at which she is very good.
Michael Copeland says
The haters hate them because they are INSTRUCTED to hate them, not because their “hearts and minds” are not won over.
“It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and his Messenger, to have any option about their decision” Koran 33:36.
The Manual of Islamic Law:
o8.0 Leaving Islam is the ugliest form of unbelief (kufr)…
o8.7 Acts that entail leaving Islam: include
o8.7(7) to deny any verse of the Koran
o8.1 When a person …apostatizes from [leaves] Islam he deserves to be killed.
o8.4 There is no indemnity for killing an apostate (O: or any expiation, since it is killing someone who deserves to die).
The Manual of Islamic Law is a free download:
http://www.islamicbulletin.org/free_downloads/…/reliance2_
Rob says
We should do exactly as we are doing in Syria. Staying the hell out of it!
If it wasn’t for the Christian communities being either targeted, or just winding up collateral, I would be completely relaxed.
Where are the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope?
John C. Barile says
I’d stay out of there too, Rob. The trouble is that B.H.Obama and his Muslim Brotherhood contingent are quite determined to get the U.S. embroiled in the conflict there.
john spielman says
I wonder if Rezali or ibn muslim would care to comment on this muslim on muslim violence, Is it the Jews that caused it , or was it caused by former colonialism?
Or is it as I have said:This is MORE PROOF that Islam is a Satanic vile murderous religion based on the mad rantings of a demon possessed mass murderer,thief liar misogynistic PEDOPHILE!
Salah says
Sunnis say Aisha is in Paradise, Shias say she’s in Hell…so they kill each other!
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2012/02/aisha-in-hell-aicha-en-enfer.html
Sunnis say Muhammad is in Paradise, Shias say he’s in Paradise but his private parts are in Hell…so they kill each other!
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2011/07/private-parts-of-muhammad.html
As long as blood, any blood, is flowing, Allah is happy – But God is not!
logdon says
“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.
And all will end happy ever after?
It’s quite mind boggling.
A US Secretary of State in her own little world of her own rationality versus the mindless acolytes of a religion which is reverting to form and turning Syria into a medieval midden.
I use Syria as the example because they have free rein. No infidel interlopers to blame, it’s just pure Islamic sect on sect and look what’s happening.
BNI is a good site if you can bear watching exactly what’s going on. With each slow and gruesome beheading, the allahu akbaring sheer joy and praise to God.
It is beyond obscene.
defcon 5 says
I’d cry but it would be an insult to all those unbelieving najjis kaffir being murdered and persecuted by sunnis and shiites all over the islamic world in the here and now.
pselliott says
I want to know what the Pope has to say about all of this.