What do you think would have happened to this guy in America? Would he be a hero, do time, or both?

Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47's and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said.

"We attacked them before they attacked us," Dhia, 35, his face still contorted with rage and excitement, said in a brief exchange at his shop a few hours after the battle. He did not give his last name. "We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen. I am waiting for the rest of them to come and we will show them."

Can't have that right? Don't want mob rule, right?

So what would have been the "moral" answer? Call the police? It is truly the moral thing to do, if you see a group of men with masks, loaded weapons, bomb, and hand gernades, to call the authories and hope they don't take 25 minutes to arrive?

Was the shopkeeper's response the right or wrong thing?

Remember, you're making this decision for their victims.

Another question: If the shopkeeper had been prevented from owning a weapon commensurate with those the worst criminals use, would he still have been able to do this? Again, put yourself in the victim's shoes -- or their family members.

I'll leave you to puzzle this one out for yourself.

I leave you with one final thought: It has been fashionable, in certain circles, to refer to such terrorist as those Dhia attacked as "brave". I submit to men like Dhia are much braver: The terrorists do their work with masks, hide their identities, and their backgrounds. Dhia, on the other hand, did what he did in plain sight, face exposed, from a shop which cannot move or flee. He and his relatives will undoubtedly be targets, though he did not even have to get involved.