Just a few more articles........

Writer and retired military officer Ralph Peters didn't see it, and he was recently there. "Factional differences are real, but overblown in the reporting," he wrote last week at RealClearPolitics.com. "After the Samarra bombing, only rogue militias and criminals responded to the demagogues' calls for vengeance. Iraqis refused to play along, staging an unrecognized triumph of passive resistance."

In fact, the under-reported mosque story was the coming of age of the Iraqi army. More than 100,000 Iraqi soldiers hit the streets. "They defused budding confrontations and calmed the situation without killing a single civilian," Peters wrote. "And Iraqis were proud to have their own army protecting them. The Iraqi army's morale soared as a result of its success."
http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary...790.xml&coll=7

March 13, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - An Iraqi mayor says he was motivated to write a letter praising the performance of U.S. troops in his city because he believes the American public is not getting the full story about the "heroic" work they are doing.
In an exclusive telephone interview with The Post, Tal' Afar Mayor Najim Abdullah Abid al-Jibouri said he wants American policymakers and the public to know there is real progress taking place in Iraq.

"I'd like American citizens not to trust everything that is being said in the media because, unfortunately, most of the media is talking about negative things and about the problems," al-Jibouri said, speaking through a translator.

"They are not telling good stories about the U.S. Army's good job here in Iraq. I would like American citizens to concentrate on the pictures that show the children of Iraqis and how happy they feel when they see or meet American soldiers."

Al-Jibouri, 49, wrote dramatic letters to President Bush and Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, last month praising the Army's 3rd Cavalry Regiment for routing the terror network headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi from Tal' Afar, a city of 250,000 people 40 miles from the Syrian border.
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/60937.htm