It appears that the media is getting involved in some of the good news coming from Iraq, though a. it comes from the AFP, and b. they had to throw some negativity into the mix
Iraq took control of security from US-led coalition forces in the largely Shiite southern province of Dhi Qar, officials said.
The relatively peaceful province is the second of the violence-ravaged country's 18 provinces to be handed over to Iraqi forces after the July transfer of power in Al-Muthanna province.
Italian and Romanian troops were in charge of security for Dhi Qar, of which Nasiriyah is the capital.
"Today we received the security file for the province of Dhi Qar which follows the handover of Al-Muthanna," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said during the handover ceremony.
"We will continue to receive control of other provinces as we manage to get our country back from the hands of the Baath dictatorship."
Fantastic news. The plan in Iraq is working. It may be slow, at least to our eyes, but it is working. Good thing we are going it alone, otherwise the Italian and Romanian troops wouldn't have had to do something ;)
Notice, though, they had to make it look like all 18 provinces are out of control. That was the second paragraph of the story. Need to go way down about 3/4 of the way to find this
Dhi Qar, a province of about 1.5 million people, has been a relatively peaceful region compared to the main southern city of Basra or Sunni-majority provinces north and west of Baghdad.
"Relatively peaceful, but let's make sure we make a comparison to those which aren't." Look, it is peaceful. Don't stretch it, AFP.
Do you have an interesting post? Well, go ahead and leave a trackback, with a reciprical link back to me. Others offering open trackbacks are over in the right sidebar, near bottom.
