I suspect these people remember well the sections of the Koran that deal with Justice.

I have not smoked weed since college, though I sure would not mind being stoned to death. Whadda way to go.

Unbelieveable scene on BBC! Iraqis hold up a sign saying

"Go home Human Shields. You US wankers"

BBC quickly switched cameras

I was worried about law and order being enforced ( or not ) after our troops cleaned the place out. It appears that the iraqis are capable of policing themselves very effectively thank you.

Burglar killed for robbing shop. Gotta hand it to the Iraqi people for going from being oppressed to doing the right thing in how many hours? British justice system can learn from these guys.

What seems to me is that Iraqis 'agree' to loot public gvt buildings but NOT personal shops and houses. That must be the line not to cross.

Too bad there are no Circuit City or Best Buy stores there or I would've been there in a flash. Rent a pick up truck and off I go....

Funny how when you level the playing field the will of the common folk starts to show up.

I doubt it was nearly as cut and dried as this article seems. It probably started more like "Hamud, what do you think you're doing? That's Akbar's shop. Put it back."

The line will be crossed as Baath party collaborators are targeted by the mob, which will put our troops in the very difficult position of protecting the Baathists. Yet another illustration of the gap between what is legal and what is right.

This is just an "unpleasent" incident during the daytime crowd... Tonight will be the real "tar and feather" party for the outgoing regime. 30 years of well cataloged grudges still need settling... I think we will see some serious uglies by dawn tomorrow. Unfortunate, but culturally it is inevitable.

In the words of Bob Dylan... "Everybody must get stoned"

They are saying that in Baghdad, the people are also looting only the government buildings. Shopkeepers were aware this was going to happen and many are armed.

The Brits started confiscating weapons in Basrah as soon as they got in (for obvious reasons) and that may have had something to do with this.

I think that the US Military has the right idea in dealing with Baathists, etc - there was a story posted (here, I think) several days ago about soldier at a checkpoint going through a bus filled with suspected paramilitaries. One of them made a throat slitting gesture at the soldier. The soldier asked via a translator if the throat slitter wanted to kill him. When the Iraqi responded "yes" - the soldier dropped him like a bad habit, cuffed him and dragged him out of the bus. Needless to say there were no further incidents with that group.

As long as the political decisions have been made, the military won't have any problems in dealing with the crimes they are aware of. As you can see from their other work, they are pretty damn efficient once the political weenies make up their minds.