[Tailgunner Joe]

A follower of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al Sadr joins a protest against
the closure of the newspaper Al Hawza in front of the headquarters of
the U.S.-led administration in Baghdad, April 2, 2004.
Photo by Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters

[RightWhale]

Give that man a horse! He could charge the enemy trenches with that sword. Of course, his horse would have a heart attack from carrying all that.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Program for all tuning into the game in progress:

White bearded guy in the top photo: Sistani.

Chubby bearded guy in the next photo: Muqty. Is it just me, or does he look like the actor that played King Herod as a dissolute fop in The Passion of the Christ?

Dinky Sword in the hands of the third guy: Commonly found in Shiite homes, it is used to reenact the martyrdom of Hussein in public ceremonies commemorating the death of this man at Karbala in 680 AD. (Shia background, grossly oversimplified: Shiites, probably about 12% of the worlds Moslems, are the followers of the line of Ali, the 4th Caliph; Sunnis follow the line of Aisha, Mohammed's child bride, and accept the first three caliphs as legit, whereas the Shiites see them as false caliphs). Most Iraqi (and Iranian) Muslims are Twelver Shiites, meaning they place great religious store in the disappearance of the 12th Shiite Imam, whom they expect to return one day.

Both Sunni and Shia Islam exist in many versions, from cosmopolitan and humanistic through to the extreme, violent faith that has such political impact today. It is much, much, more complicated than that....

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F