Civil War Averted?

Something interesting happened after that mosque attack in Iraq last week. While the MSM was damn near drooling at the prospect of a full-blown civil war, Iraqi forces--mainly Kurds--in conjunction with American units quelled the violence:

BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 -- In the days that followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine, Iraq seemed within a hair's breadth of civil war. But an aggressive U.S. and Kurdish diplomatic campaign appears for now to have coaxed the country back from open conflict between Sunni Arabs and Shiites, according to Iraqi politicians and Western diplomats speaking in interviews on Monday.

"Localized difficulties also persist, but I think, at the strategic level, this crisis -- a mosque attack leading to civil war -- is over," Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said in a telephone interview. "It was a serious crisis. I believe that Iraq came to the brink and came back."

It most definitely could have exploded and led to a civil war, people such as al-Sistani called for calm and the populace responded.

This speaks volumes as to where Iraq is as a nation. It also shows that the Sunni insurgents led by Zarqawi have used their most spectacular weapon and it didn't work. What can they attack that could be as important as that mosque?

Zarqawi must be desperate to have tried it and it didn't work. If he's reaching for that straw, he must be very frightened that democracy is taking hold.

The California Conservative and Irish Pennants have additional thoughts along these lines just better written.

The Left Coaster seems giddy that the violence continues as does Moquol. It must be a pathetic existence to get political glee out of bad things happening.