Jophiel wrote:
Samira wrote:
If you're under the impression that the conflict in Iraq isn't over control of the country - what, pray tell us all, is it over?
They're only there to kill Americans and care nothing about who controls Iraq. Duh.
Hehe. I know you're trying to be tounge in cheek, but that's not far from what I believe is happening. There are certainly factions in Iraq that may not care who ends up controlling the country, but they *don't* want a representative government to be established. Terrorist groups certainly don't. They're ability to recruit relies on large, unhappy, populations living in non-representative states.
Certainly, there are likely also some factions who'd like a bigger share of the pie, but it's not clear to what degree they are the instigators of this violence or simply tools of it. One of the first major violent acts after the initial mosque destruction was a group of men disquised as Iraqi soldiers who set up a false roadblock and indiscrimintly killed all who passed. The key bit is that both Sunni and Shiite were killed at that site. If these were sectarian fighters trying to punish the "enemy", why kill citizens of both sects? The only sensible motive for this act is a group of people who *want* sectarian violence to occur in Iraq, and were acting to inflame both groups.
In fact, when you look at the pattern of violence in Iraq, it's pretty clear that as the process towards democracy has continued, the actions have gotten more and more targetted at "the people", and more over the top, so to speak. When the US forces first arrived, violence was targetted at them and lots of rhetoric to paint them as the enemy. When the people overwhelmingly supported the actions of the US government, they started targetting members of the interrim government. When the people rejected that, they started targetting the people. When that didn't work (as witnessed by the overwhelming votor participation last winter), now they're targetting holy shrines. Every action is designed, not to further a specific cause, but to *prevent* the formation of democracy in this country.
Dunno. I see this escalation as a sign that we're suceeding. These guys wouldn't be resorting to blowing up mosques if they weren't desperate.
