Iraqi National Guard Watches Murder of Olympians in 'Forbidden' Clothing

So far only the Times of London is reporting the execution-style murder of two members of Iraq's national tennis team, and their coach, "apparently for wearing shorts, in a [Baghdad] district where Islamic radicals have started to enforce brutal, Taleban-style law."

The "offense," besides wearing shorts, was that they "were wearing green sports jerseys emblazoned with the word 'Iraq.' One of the shirts bore an Olympics patch." In the new Iraq, those are all serious no-no's.

Radicals have been leaving leaflets at homes, forbidding women to drive or go outside without being veiled. The leaflet also warns men not to wear shorts or dress in T-shirts bearing images or English writing.

In addition, the leaflet forbids men from wearing goatee beards and anyone from buying mayonnaise. The leaflet threatens violators with death.

[No, I don't know why mayo is also verboten.]

What about the forces of law and order? Iraqi National Guardsmen were manning a checkpoint some 330 feet away, the Times reports, "but the soldiers did nothing, witnesses said. They added that gunmen had used the same car in the past two months during attacks on the owner of an electrical parts shop and a pedestrian. Local people suspect that the murders have been carried out by the Islamic militants roaming al-Saidiyah and the adjoining district of al-Amariyah."

What was that about "as the Iraqis stand up, [American troops will] stand down"?

(Many thanks to Peter Daou for the tip and for a must-read essay contrasting the moral yardsticks of the left and the right, especially as applied to the war in Iraq.)