New York Times Leads with a Lie

Here's the first sentence from today's story from Robert Worth:

Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country.

News flash: Ordinary Iraqis strike back at the insurgents every day of the week.

Ordinary Iraqis strike back at the insurgents just by showing up to work in their police, government, and security jobs. Why are you leading an otherwise great story with this stupid, stupid meme? Why not simply open with this?

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."

That's a terrific story.

Of course, in a misguided effort to provide us with "context," we get this:
It was the first time that private citizens are known to have retaliated successfully against insurgents.

Dude. You have got to get out more.

Splash, out

Jason