We Have a Winner

Earlier today I posted a picture of the destroyed golden minarets of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, and asked this question:

How soon before some Bush Administration flack tells us that this increased violence means the surge escalation is working?

And Bushco Press Secretary Tony Snowjob may have already taken the cake, minutes before I posted, when he was asked to comment about today's bombing of the Golden Mosque:

It does fit a pattern that we see throughout the region, which is that when you see things moving towards success, or when you see signs of success, that there are acts of violence.

War is peace! Freedom is slavery! Ignorance is strength! It's not 2007. It's 1984. It's always 1984 in Bushworld.

Groundhog Day

The destroyed golden minarets at the Shiite Muslim Golden Mosque in Samarra, Iraq.
(Getty Images)
June 13, 2007

How soon before some Bush Administration flack tells us that this increased violence means the surge escalation is working?

LATimes: Blasts topple part of Shiite shrine in Samarra
The attack on the Golden Mosque, where an assault a year ago triggered widespread bloodshed, brings new fears of violence.

Iraq's Fort Sumter?

Has civil war begun in Iraq, after yesterday's bombing of the Shiite "golden mosque"? Over 100 people were killed today.

International Herald Tribune: Shiite fury explodes in Iraq

BAGHDAD: At least 138 Iraqis, most of them Sunni Arabs, including a number of clerics, were killed in central Iraq on Wednesday and Thursday in the maelstrom of sectarian violence that followed the bombing of one of the country's most sacred Shiite shrines, Iraqi officials said.

Seven American soldiers also died in bombings, the U.S. military said Thursday.

Sunni Arab politicians broke off talks with Shiite and Kurdish leaders over the formation of a new government, saying that the Shiites were encouraging reprisals against Sunnis.

Across Iraq, thousands of Shiites took to the streets in a second day of protests against the attack in Samarra, 95 kilometers, or 60 miles, north of Baghdad, which destroyed the dome of Al Askariya, also known as the Golden Mosque because of its color.

The protests Thursday were mostly peaceful, though Shiites raided several Sunni mosques in Baghdad and set fire to at least two.

In the deadliest attack in the past two days, 47 people returning from a protest on Wednesday were pulled off buses south of Baghdad and shot in their heads, an Interior Ministry official said Thursday.

Professor Juan Cole: Shiite protests Roil Iraq

Tuesday was an apocalyptic day in Iraq. I am not normally exactly sanguine about the situation there. But the atmospherics are very, very bad, in a way that most Western observers will miss.

Shiite 'Golden Mosque' Heavily Damaged

Imagine that St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City had been bombed. Or the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Dr. Laniac's Daily News Blog: Shiite 'Golden Mosque' heavily damaged

Ominous news from Iraq -- the "golden mosque" in Samarra has been destroyed. By men dressed as Iraqi commandos. Ten men have been captured and arrested.

As if sectarian tensions weren't already high.

"The crime that has taken place in Samarra is against Iraq, is against one of the holiest places in the country and the whole population is extremely hurt by what they have heard."

The Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party called the attack "an extreme crime" and called for an investigation into who was responsible. Later, its office in Baghdad and two local Sunni mosques were attacked, police said.

Gunmen stormed the Iraqi Islamic Party's office, evacuated its employees and torched the place. The main entrance to Al Hamza mosque, which escaped damage, came under machine-gun fire and was burned. A rocket-propelled grenade caused damage to the entrance of the Mustafa mosque."

Guardian (uk): In pictures: Attack on the al-Askari shrine in Samarra