Iraqi Police in Basra:

Allegiance to the state, or to the mosque?

In related news, Laurie Goering of the Chicago Tribune remembers a brave friend:

The next day he was there again at the edge of another crowd. Again he stepped forward to help. This time, when we finished, I asked him if he would like to work with me. He said the Basra fertilizer factory where he worked had closed before the war. He would be glad to help. He didn't want any money. Seeing Iraq change, he said, was enough.

Over the next three weeks, Fakher became my interpreter, my unlikely bodyguard, my dear friend and my chief source of insight into Iraqi society. We slept in the dirt beside my four-wheel-drive as rocket-propelled grenades shook the ground. He found fuel and food when both were scarce; he translated verses of the Koran to help me understand his fervent faith. More than once, he saved my life.

On Monday he lost his.

Also in today's Trib, two of ours? (As always, presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.)

Finally, one more from the Trib by columnist John Kass, who replaced the late, great Mike Royko. Royko was a Cubs fan; Kass ... is not:

Not all Cubs fans are evil primates, just the evil ones, the chimper boys and girls, and as they ask about the Sox, something happens to their faces: Their lips stretch to reveal teeth, their jaws jut forward, their eyebrows twist in the manner of, well, evil primates. They make strange hand gestures.

In chimps, these are non-verbal cues indicating anxieties, fear and aggression. In Cubs fans, the anxiety is repressed but quite obvious: They're afraid that the Sox won't choke.

And I'm here to tell you, they should be afraid. Because, quite simply, the Sox won't choke.