Here in Southern Maine the maples are beginning to pop. The branches are thickening red after a season of stark black against grey skies. Our two magnolias are in flower, one glorious white, the other sunrise red. It is snowing in The County but the earth knows that it is spring, and the verdent explosion has already begun in the grass, bringing out groundhogs -- Wise Grandmother Agaskwa of the Gluskabe creation and wisdom story cycle.
Le Monde too reports the first signs of a change in the weather.
"Nous rejetons la responsabilité de ces actes sur les membres de la communauté sunnite et nous leur demandons de condamner ces agissements criminels pour ne pas être obligés d'y riposter", a déclaré à l'AFP Assad Abou Qalal, gouverneur de la ville sainte de Nadjaf et haut responsable du Conseil suprême de la révolution islamique (CSRII), le principal parti chiite irakien.This is the first time that a Shia leader, the governor of Najaf, member of the governing council of SCIIR, has accused the Sunnis collectively of responsibility for supporting the anti-Occupation forces, and is the first time a Shia leader has delivered an ultimatum, backed by a threat of reprisal, to the Sunnis. Assad Abou Qalal had just performed services for six of the nine Shia killed at a Baghdad mosque when he made the statement to the press.
Juan Cole will certainly have coverage tomorrow.
Posted by EBW at April 23, 2005 02:42 PM | TrackBack