A More Typical News Story, Reminiscent of Judy Miller

(Of course, in honor of my new obsession with Maggie Q, maybe I'll start refering to her as Judy M....)

This is more typical of the Times: How it relies on the thinnest straw to support a loony assertion of an alleged major sea-change:

In a number of Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents are beginning to turn away from the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia they once saw as their only protector against Sunni militants. Now they resent it as a band of street thugs without ideology.

The hardening Shiite feeling in Baghdad opens an opportunity for the American military, which has long struggled against the Mahdi Army, as American commanders rely increasingly on tribes and local leaders in their prosecution of the war.

***

In interviews, 10 Shiites from four neighborhoods in eastern and western Baghdad described a pattern in which militia members, looking for new sources of income, turned on Shiites.

The pattern appears less frequently in neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shiites are still struggling for territory. Sadr City, the largest Shiite neighborhood, where the Mahdi Army’s face is more political than military, has largely escaped the wave of criminality.

Link.

Victory, it would seem is just around the corner.... Of course, the byline was a clue that the article was silly bullshit. If it was Dexter Filkins, then there would have been credibility to it... well, actually, so speciously sourced, it wouldn't have even been reported by him because it would have been too bogus....