Posted on 07/08/2005 12:57:19 PM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
Baghdad, 8 July (AKI) - An aide of the Shiite spiritual leader in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was killed on Thursday night in Baghdad. Religious leader Hashim Attiya al-Fadili was attacked as he travelled along a road in the capital, and another person with him was injured in the ambush.
Al-Fadili is the latest in a series of al-Sistani's aides to be killed. In the most recent attack, prominent Shiite cleric Kamal Ezz al-Deen al-Ghuraifi was killed by gunmen earlier this month.
Another two aides were murdered in the run-up to the Iraqi elections on January 30 - one along with his son and four bodyguards - and al-Sistani's representative in the rundown al-Sadr City district on the edge of Baghdad was killed in May as he left home to go to work.
Meanwhile, on Friday morning, in the southern city of Basra the body of a university professor kidnapped the previous day was found. A police source in Basra said the body of Jumhur Karim was discovered by passers-by. Karim was the head of the Arab section at the Arts Faculty of the University of Basra and was kidnapped on Thursday from outside his home by armed men dressed as policemen.
If this happened in Chicago we would call it a gang war killing.
The last thing that Iraq needs is a civil war but I wonder how much longer it will be before the Shiites get really pi$$ed and decide to get some serious revenge.
In a word Sadr.
What are the Iraqi authorities waiting for? Expecting the coalition troops to do their job for them.
More likely -- Zarqawi's organization is trying to foment a civil war, provoking the Shias to strike back at the Iraqi Sunnis.
Unfortunately, I am beginning to take a look at my inner Machiavelli. The Sunni and Shia hate each other and they're gonna have a big fight sooner or later. Sistani isn't in good health and probably will kick the bucket in a few years sooner if not later. Should we let these folks fight it out now or later. I don't put great hope in the Shia because too many of them wan't a Mullahcracy like Iran. There are n't enough secular minded people to go around unfortunately. We should make a deal with the Kurds. Help them take over the Kirkuk oil field, force them to make a non-agression deal with Turkey (who is scared outta their undies that there will be an independent Kurdistan), put a few bases in an enlarged autonomous Kurdish area and when the Arabs get sick of the sight of their own blood flowing in the streets then we can step in an set up a government in Iraq to our liking. Nasty, but the US needs to get in touch with its inner Machiavelli.
Not a bad plan but I would let the Turks sweat it out. They haven't been as helpful in all of this as they could have been. The Kurds are and have been for a very long time our strongest ally in the region (Israel excepted of course.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.