I mean, really, this just sounds like only he is standing between Iraqis and terrorists with pitch forks:
"Moving the ship of state takes time," he told a group of students in Istanbul. He noted his long-standing opposition to the war, yet said, "Now that we're there," the U.S. troop withdrawal has to be done "in a careful enough way that we don't see a collapse into violence."
But the press won't notice this bias. The press has always reported on the same assumption that Iraq is on the verge of disaster. Now they can't say that there is much evidence of that imminent disaster, but the assumption remains:
While U.S. casualties are down sharply from the war's height, there were constant reminders of violence. A half-dozen bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods on Monday, killing 37 people.
See, the apparent calm is contradicted by the Monday violence, indicating that there really isn't calm and it could all go to Hell in a second. Honestly, would it have been too much to recast this reporting a bit?
While a half-dozen bombs rocked Shiite neighborhoods on Monday, killing 37 people, the statistics of violence are a constant reminder of the victory over the terrorsits. U.S. casualties are down sharply from the war's height.
See? In this case the Monday incident is place in the context of generally lower violence levels from the height of the war.
It all depends on whether you expect (and have rooted for) defeat in the war.
I worry when people don't seem to have much invested in our victory.
