How Many More US Soldiers Must Die Defending Iraqi Shiite Muslim Shrines?

Then:

"Americans have no intention of taking sides in a sectarian struggle or standing in the crossfire between rival factions." - GW Bush, October 2006.

Now:

Iraqi and American forces killed several hundred gunmen apparently planning to attack a Shiite Muslim shrine Sunday, fighting a daylong battle in which a U.S. helicopter crashed, killing two U.S. troops, Iraqi security officials said.
....
Iraqi security officials offered conflicting accounts of the identity and motives of the heavily armed fighters outside Najaf, variously describing them as foreign fighters, Sunni Muslim nationalists, loyalists of executed former dictator Saddam Hussein or followers of a messianic Shiite death cult. Some witnesses reported that the attackers wore colorful Afghan tribal robes.

Good thing our troops are not "taking sides" or "standing in the crossfire between rival factions".