A 'Successful' Shoe Bomber?

[Annie]

Link at site. Doesn't look like this 'civil war' strategy is going to work:

http://austinbay.net/blog/?p=1193

6/16/2006
Shoe bomb in Baghdad/an Iraqi democracy as ultimate revenge


— site admin @ 6:17 am

Terrorist Richard Reid tried to take down an airplane using a pair of explosive shoes. Today in Iraq a terrorist attacked a Shia mosque in Baghdad using the same technique. Ten people were murdered, 25 wounded.

Key excerpt in the BBC report:

The bomber must also have got through a more thorough body check to gain access the main courtyard of the mosque, he says.

He got close to the imam’s position, but before the imam arrived, security staff noticed he was still wearing his shoes, which is not allowed in a mosque.

He was told to take them off, and appeared to be complying, when the bomb went off.

It is believed to be the first time a shoe bomb has been used in Iraq.



The mosque’s imam, Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, is a member of the new Iraqi parliament. He blamed Al Qaeda and “Baathists” for the attack. Then added these words: “”This will not deter us, this will not affect the political process.” Note he’s not calling for “revenege attacks.” Mr. al-Saghir’s action indicates he knows an Iraqi democracy is the ultimate revenege on Al Qaeada and Saddam’s Baathists.

In the wake of a deadly massacre, Mr. al-Saghir repeats Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s central message: our democratic political process will continue. This is political leadership under fire.

The Iraqis know what their enemies want. Their enemies want (1) capitulation to fear and hopelessness and (2) civil war along sectarian lines (with that war possibly expanding into a regional war with Sunnis fighting Shias). But the Iraqis also know their enemies are failing. The courage and determiniation of people like Mr. al-Saghir are one very important reason.