“On February 22, 2006, al-Qaeda made its boldest attempt to spark a civil war [in Iraq] by bombing the ‘Golden Mosque’ in Samarra, sixty-five miles north of Baghdad. …No one was killed when two powerful bombs were detonated at dawn, but the gilded dome of one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites was shattered. This attack triggered a wave of retaliation by the Shiites, many of whom had been brutalized by the Sunnis during Saddam’s years of tyranny.”
– Karl Rove, Courage and Consequence, Pages 473-474