The situation in Iraq is getting worse by the minute ....

[RedEarth]

it's going to take a miracle to keep it from coming apart at the seams....

Tens of thousands of people have staged protests across Iraq after a bomb attack heavily damaged one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
Dozens of Sunni mosques are reported to have been targeted in revenge attacks after a gang blew up the golden dome of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra.

.............

Protests and violence broke out across Iraq:


In Basra, gunmen attack Sunni mosques and exchange fire with guards at an office of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party.

In Baghdad, a Sunni mosque in Baladiya district is raked with gunfire, while black-clad militiamen of the Shia Mehdi Army demonstrate in Sadr City .

Tens of thousands of protesters rally in the southern Shia city of Karbala, AFP news agency reports

Businesses shut down in Najaf and about 1,000 march through the streets, waving flags and shouting slogans

Markets, shops and stalls close in Diwaniyah, AP says. A Mehdi Army militiaman is killed in clashes after gunmen from the faction attack Sunni houses, Reuters news agency reports.

About 3,000 people demonstrate in the Shia city of Kut, chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans and burning US and Israeli flags, AP says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4740010.stm


here is what Juan Cole said earlier today about the Mosque bombing....

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.

http://www.juancole.com/2006/02/shiite-protests-roil-iraq-tuesday-was.html

[atomic-fly]

1. getting uglier for sure.

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[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Sounds like a civil war to me

Meanwhile, who has a plan? Murtha, maybe?