Islamic Hatred Takes Focus in Iraq

You may expect this hatred to be focused on the "infidels", but the infidels on this occasion are Muslims. The Wall Street Journal reported tonight that a Shiite shrine was bombed yesterday in response to attacks against Sunni mosques.

Yesterday's bombing of one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines and retaliatory attacks against Sunni Muslim mosques have raised Iraq's sectarian tensions to new heights, just as talks among the country's ethnic and religious groups on forming a unity government are floundering.

The consistent news coming out of Iraq these days involves suicide/homicide bombings on Iraqi civilians, attacks on holy sites, many times leaving the American death toll at a maximum of only a couple. Does anyone recall the story of a Shiite pilgrimage that encountered a machine gun trap on a bridge in Iraq? I doubt it; one would be hard-pressed to find a news account of the massacre. I only heard about it from a friend here at UW-Madison who recently returned from Iraq.

While the stories dominating mainstream media these days highlight the deaths of American soldiers, often they brush aside the massive civilian casualties and even fail to report cases where no American lives are lost. This is exactly the reason the blogosphere has had such a profound impact and is so hated by the liberal media. Whether it is uncovering scandals or shedding light on frauds (Rathergate, Korangate ... just to name a few), bloggers tell the whole story and not just the whitewashed edition that makes it onto ABC Primetime or CBS 60 Minutes.