Americans like to pretend they have courage. But, unless we're on the firing line we seldom get to display it. For most of us, most of the time, courage consists of ordinary things, like running against a powerful opponent.

Elsewhere, the courage it takes to post this blog item can get you killed. So let's raise another glass to Salam Pax, the "Baghdad Blogger." You may remember him from the war, when we wondered if he might be Iraq's Anne Frank, reporting from the mouth of the volcano and being consumed by it. (You can re-read his war diary, to the right, in book form.)

He still might be consumed. Here is what he had to say Tuesday, referring to Moqtaba Al Sadr, the Shi'ite mullah and militia leader whose resistance to arrest for murder triggered much of this week's violence:

Remember the days when every time you hear an Iraqi talk on TV you had to remember that they are talking with a Mukhabarat minder looking at them noting every word? We are back to that place.

Welcome to the next level. Please don't act surprised and what sort of timing is that it: planning to go on a huge attack on the west of Iraq and provoking a group you know very well (I pray to god you knew) that they are trouble makers.

Easy for me to post it. But if you knew writing that might kill you, would you?

Be honest.