The partition plan seems to be a wise choice at this point in time. Pray tell what other choices are viable? As it exists now the country of Iraq is fractured and trying to hold it together might well be more difficult than fighting the war in the first place. There exists no single leader capable of uniting the factions.

I'd say “asymptote” was a poor choice of words in this context: it's derived from the Greek words for “not intersecting”. The fear is that it is intersecting.

Trajectory, perhaps?

And to think, the extremists haven't even finished explaining to us that the cartoons were wrong because in Islam, religious symbols are always, always, always treated with utmost respect.

Ben

I thought about that Dave. My hope, though, at this point is still that while it appears at the moment to be approaching precipitately, it *won't* actually intersect. Imminent disaster might cause people to back off.

Because if it does intersect, things are going to get awfully bloody for a long while - like Lebanon or Yugoslavia.

And not only will it hand Al Qaeda it's biggest victory in years, but the Shi'ites will become even more Iran centric than they are right now. And our old friend Muqtada al Sadr will become an even bigger player.

I still don't understand why we didn't arrest him last year, when we had the chance. He foments trouble everywhere - his people appear to be causing the Sunni mosque reprisal raids in Baghdad at the moment.

Actually, Van, I think Ahmadinejad should be viewed as the prime suspect, not A-Q or the Baathists for a few reasons.

[ed: did you mean Van or Alcibiades?]

1. Zarqawi was read the riot act not long ago about activities against any Muslims as he was only drawing heat from Sunni tribesmen (their usual support base) as well as the infidel Shia, and was directed to limit attacks to "occupiers"

2. Ahmadinejad has many reasons to want to refocus global attention away from Iran's nuclear project and Iranian attention, at home and abroad from his vile, repressive theocracy and leverage any support he may have in Iraq.

3. Most importantly, the mad milenialist not only wants the Mahdi to appear, but he wants him to appear in his own backyard and the shrine in Samara and another recently destroyed shrine in Hilla were seen as major rival sites for the miraculous event.

Hi Lynne.

While I agree with 2 and 3, I'm not sure I see Ahmadinejad as being cynical enough about Islam to blow up other Shi'ite holy places. He's cynical about everything else, but he seems too devoted a millenialist about Shi'ism. He really believes the stuff.

Whereas Al Qaeda just has utter contempt for other people's holy places. And I'm not sure a warning at second hand is enough to stop an increasingly desperate Zarqawi, who now seems on target to get precisely what he wants.

Although I suppose the most paranoid, but brilliant thesis is that Ahmadinejad was acting in concert with Zarqawi, tacitly or in full agreement.

That way each of them get what they want. Zarqawi gets an Iraqi cataclysm. And Ahmadinejad gets the forces of Shi'ite repression to come out with a vengeance. While we are speculating.

Well, if cartoons sparked world-wide protests, just think of what's going to happen now that a holy site has been destroyed. Stand back, everyone, lest you get caught in the flood of Moslems taking to the streets to show their indignation.