Cartoon tantrum continues

CNN reports that Muslims continue to act out in Pakistan over cartoons in Denmark. It can be argued that these tantrums persuaded al Qaeda that blowing up the mosque in Samarra would result in similar acting out in Iraq that might scuttle the new Iraqi government.

So far the government and clerics for both Shia and Sunnis have acted responsibly, which has to be a disappointment to al Qaeda. While leaders in Iraq have acted responsibly, there are still people who have not and violence continues in some areas, but it is not enough to be considered a general uprising, which is what al Qaeda was counting on.

This AP story carried on Fox News web site indicates that the clerics have agreed to call for restraint and that the violence is receding.

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In an unusual round of telephone diplomacy, President Bush spoke with seven leaders of Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political parties in a bid to defuse the sectarian crisis unleashed by the bombing of the Shiites' Askariya shrine in Samarra.

Bush "encouraged them to continue to work together to thwart the efforts of the perpetrators of the violence to sow discord among Iraq's communities," said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.

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But Bush's personal intervention appeared to ease Sunni fears. Tariq al-Hashimi, leader of the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, said after speaking with Bush that a new government was the best way to ease the sectarian crisis.

A second straight day of curfew in Baghdad and three surrounding provinces kept the city relatively calm, raising hopes the worst of the crisis was past. Authorities lifted the curfew in the areas outside Baghdad but decreed an all-day vehicle ban Sunday for the capital and its suburbs.

"I think the danger of civil war as a result of this attack has diminished, although I do not believe we are completely out of danger yet," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters Saturday night.

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