The Golden Mosque, the Shi'ites, the Sunnis, & our soldiers.

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10132092.html


- The Golden Mosque is one of the four major Shi'ite shrines in Iraq. Samarra, north of Baghdad, is a predominantly
Sunni city. Other major sites are in the holy Shi'ite cities of Najaf and Kerbala. The fourth is in the Baghdad district of
Kadhimiya, also mainly home to Shi'ites.

- Two of the 12 revered Shi'ite imams are buried in the Samarra shrine - Imam Ali Al Hadi, who died in 868 and his son, the 11th imam, Hasan Al Askari, who died in 874.

- Shi'ites believe the 12th imam, Imam Mehdi, known as the hidden imam, went into hiding from a cellar in the complex in
878. Shi'ites say he will return before the Day of Judgment to return justice to a world full of oppression.

- Iraqi commandos retook the Golden Mosque from insurgents during a US-led offensive in Samarra in October 2004.


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Why o fucking why are our soldiers in the middle of this ancient, stupid bullshit?

Am I an asshole because I don't give a flying Walenda about these archaic, dusty old religious hatreds and these thousand year old grudges and the bombing of the Golden Mosque and the inevitable counter attacks and deaths, it drives a person crazy trying to understand it all.

I can relate to (but not approve of) invading a nation and toppling a monster dictator and stealing all the oil, America has always done shit like this, but to waste our soldiers and money by being in the middle of this centuries old religious insanity, what's the point?

You can't quell this kind of eternal religious hatred, those who are in it can't quell it, how can an invading, occupying foreign army quell it?

Just another bizarre facet of the complicated war of terror I guess.