BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — British and Australian forces handed over security responsibility for relatively peaceful Muthanna province to Iraqi forces on Thursday in the first such transfer of an entire province.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hailed the security transfer as an important step toward the goal of full Iraqi responsibility for all 18 provinces by the end of next year.
But at least 18 people were killed in attacks nationwide, illustrating the security challenge faced by this country. [emphasis added]
Nine positive paragraphs on the story related to the headline, and one negative. There is a two paragraph segue of al-Maliki’s Washington visit, a negative al-Maliki paragraph and then seven paragraphs of bad Iraq news unrelated to the Muthanna handover and a list of 9 bulleted points of negativity, also unrelated to Muthanna. Counting the bulleted list, that’s eighteen bad news grafs, two neutral, and nine on an actual positive story.
When there is good news to report, it seems the plan is to make sure to include double the bad news under the same headline, even if it is unrelated. I guess that’s the MSM’s version of a spoonful of sugar making the medicine go down. I hope they choke on it. Let’s see how well that quagmire meme is working out for them in another six months.
Oh, and by the way, in case you missed it: The Iraqis stood up in Muthanna province, and we’re standing down. Imagine that.
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