'a critical moment for iraq'

Uniform-wearing terrorists blew up the Askariya shrine in Samarra today.

Considered one of the holiest and most revered mosques, the destruction of the Askariya mosque reminds me of the stupidity of a great number of people in Los Angeles, back in 1992, who burned and destroyed large sections of their own communities.

Case in point: These people aren't getting anywhere with this type of behavior--they're just making themselves look like assholes.

Both Iraq's U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, called today's destruction 'a critical moment for Iraq.'

I agree.

It seems that virtually every week another mosque is blown up, each one supposedly 'holier' than the one before. It just goes to show you that the terrorists have so perverted Islam, changed the religion so drastically in their warped minds, that they are willing to use the destruction of one of their own houses of worship as a platform for expressing their anger and hatred.

The words 'civil war' are beginning to be bandied about.

I disagree.

I believe that the true Iraqi patriots and the average Iraqi citizens will be so outraged by the events of today that resisting and defeating terrorism will give them the resolve necessary to beat back the threat of terror. I believe that the concern about individual and collective survival will keep Iraqi's united against the natural and common enemy of the al Qaeda terrorists.