Iraq is international concern

The explosion outside an Iraqi mosque that killed more than 100 people, including the most influential Shiite cleric committed to establishment of a stable post-Saddam government, demonstrates a need for an international response.
Already, various factions have shown themselves eager to assign blame for the tragedy. Some were quick to say the United States is responsible, but that is not only simplistic, it is wrong.
Whether the bomb was planted by Saddam Hussein's Baathist loyalists or by radical Islamists eager to undermine the United States and its allies in Iraq, the guilt falls clearly on the murderers who built, transported and detonated the bomb.
The United States was virtually powerless to prevent the attack on Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim. It had specifically been asked to keep its forces off the premises of the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq, because it is considered holy ground.
Priorities
Clearly, training more security forces that would answer to the Iraqi Governing Council is a priority. But it should also be a priority for the rest of the world to recognize the council as a legitimate interim governing body and give it support, both moral and financial.
Just three weeks ago, the 22-member Arab League had the opportunity to do so while meeting in Cairo and refused. Ironically, a body that never questioned the legitimacy of Saddam's repressive regime, refused to recognize the council because its members were appointed by a foreign government rather than elected by the Iraqi people. Even more ironically, if democratic elections were a prerequisite to being recognized by the Arab League, none of its members would have a seat at the table.
Arab leaders should be among the first and most vociferous to condemn the attack in Najaf.
They should be followed by members of the United Nations Security Council, which should work with the United States and Great Britain to resolve jurisdictional differences for governing Iraq.
Iraq is on the brink of a civil war that would change the course of history. This is not the time for the civilized world to assign blame, it is the time to join hands and act.