The bomb attack has enraged the majority Shia population, who regard the shrine in the same way that Roman Catholics view St Peter's in Rome. ... "Iraq is in a Weimar period like Germany in the 1920s which will either end with the country disintegrating or in an authoritarian government taking power," said Ghassan Atiyyah, an Iraqi political commentator. ... The destruction of the Golden Mosque will be an immense psychological blow to Iraqi Shia who have endured so much down the centuries. The shrine contains the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams, Ali al-Hadi who died AD868 and his son Hassan Ali al-Askari who died AD874. His son, the last of the 12 Shia imams, Mohammed al-Mahdi, disappeared and is known as the "hidden imam". Shias believe he is still alive and will bring justice to humanity. ... There are signs of increasing anti-American feeling among the Shia as they see the Americans allying themselves with the Sunni. ... The extent of Shia retaliation may also depend on the Iranian government... Ayatollah Khamenei blamed the intelligence services of the US and Israel for being behind the bombs in Samarra.

for what's called nation building.

Iraq Spirals Toward Civil Conflict

I don't think there is any shock that one side did it to the other side.

The question now is managing the results in such a way democracy is the result.

et al - In other news, Henny Penny reports that the sky is falling. Details at 11.

As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war, it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly. By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadist terrorists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at.

Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support