More than three years after a devastating bombing, the dome of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra is being rebuilt. The city itself is recovering from the war: Violence has faded and Iraqi security forces are in charge. (Ernesto Londono/The Washington Post) From The Washington Post:
Samarra, Iraq -- The Shiite pilgrims arrive in crowded buses and are dropped off just outside the shrine's gate. They walk down a narrow path patrolled by security guards and lined with tall cement walls to pray at the al-Askari mosque, the resting place of two of the most revered figures in Shiite Islam.
The mosque, which once had a golden dome that sparkled in this city of gray, looks like a construction site, with piles of debris and scaffolding -- remnants of the February 2006 bombing that unleashed a brutal civil war between Sunnis and Shiites.
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My Comment: If .... in 25 years Iraq has a dynamic economy and a functional democracy with a free press and a tolerance of different cultural and religious groups .... I would have to say that the Iraq war was worth it.
If .... in 25 years Iraq is a dictatorship and/or a country fractured along sectarian lines, no democracy and limited free press (if any), a dysfunctional economy and a society equal to and/or close to what existed under Saddam Hussein .... the U.S. would blame themselves for wasting their time and treasure in Iraq. For the Iraqis, they will also blame themselves for having the opportunity of bettering themselves, but instead decided to go down a path of repeating history and the misery that it brings.
My prediction .... Iraq is going to succeed and the U.S. will deserve the credit for it. The reason why Iraq will succeed is simple .... there is too much wealth in oil for it to not be exploited and taken advantage of. With trillions of dollars in resources that are waiting to be exploited, all Iraqis know that to not do so will only condemn them to more violence and poverty in the future .... a prospect that I am sure the vast majority of Iraqis are fed up with and have no desire to experience it again.