Repeat History. Rinse. Carry on.

A simple question:

At what point can we stop saying that Iraq is approaching Civil War, that the latest act of sectarian violence is bringing Iraq close to Civil War, that there’s a Civil War brewing in Iraq, etc etc…

… and just say that there is a Civil War going on in Iraq?

Early today in another of those senseless actions from a seemingless senseless people, people of the Sunni Sect of Islam detonated two bombs in the 1,000 year old (I believe that age is about correct) al Askariya Mosque, located in Samarra, Iraq. This is/was the most holy place of meeting and prayer known to the Shi’a Sect of Islam. I have seen it, stood inside it, and from many angles marveled at the sheer beauty of the thing; today, one of the most despicable crimes of the new century has been committed. I am not Muslim nor can I ever be but I could cheerfully kill the people who did this. The true horror of the act is the same as in the story of Humpty Dumpty; it can never really be put back together again.

This building was a Classic of its Design Type, having a beautiful golden onion shaped Dome (the golden dome is much more recent than the Mosque itself) with room for an great number of worshippers, a building by its very name sacred to the memory of Ali, the Prophet’s grandson and designated successor, a place of Pilgrimage for the Shi’a and anyone else who cared to go there. Ali was never able to assume the Prophet’s Mantle bequeathed to him by his grandfather; he was murdered by the Sunni shortly after the Prophet’s death. The death of Ali was the first Great Schism within Islam, never since have the Shi’a recognized any other to be the legal successor to the Prophet.

I cannot but feel the misery and sorrow they must have who are Devotees of this Sect. Something seemingly eternal has been cut from their lives and anything that replaces it will be a poor substitute indeed. It is to them the same as it would be to me if Sancta Sophia in Istanbul were to be blown up and totally destroyed. For those of you who have forgotten, from 537 A.D. to 1457 A.D. the Church of Sancta Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was the greatest constantly used edifice of ANY kind in the entire world.

As you may have already heard. the revenge killings have started and I do not think they will cease anytime soon. Iraq has now descended into what me and my old-time cohorts used to call “The Snake Pit” mode
of operation which will not end by some Imam doing a handshake agreement with another. A late breaking note is that the Sunni and their Mosques are now being attacked with everything from pistols to Rocket Launchers.

I am sure before and after views of the al Askariya Mosque will be on TV News sooner or later. Take a good look and mentally hold the picture for awhile. Say to yourself, This Is How Crappy Human Being’s can Be When They Are Bound By Superstition and Bigotry and this is what makes them able to destroy a building that has withstood the usage of over 1,000 years (first erected in A.D. 830-840 or thereabouts).

It is the destruction of history, for the sake of destroying history. Recall the Taliban blasting away at those Buddhist idols in the Spring of 2001. Except, in a fairly perverse sense, at least that made some sort of sense (Blasphemy, I say!)

I recall the careful moving of Iraqi-held museum pieces in anticipation of “Operation Iraqi Liberation” (Operation OIL) by museum curators who cared. That would be rescuing history from the abyss (against America’s bombs of destruction, naturally). Of course, the post-war looting would be, again, the destruction of history.

So what do we have in America? I guess the re-classification process of unclassified official documents. That’s a little bit different, I have to admit. I’m trying to google up that story about the KKK guarding a church. They’re preserving history, right?

Those who don’t know their history are condmend to repeat it. But then again, those who do know their history are as well, it would seem.

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