Thursday, August 18, 2005
Good News from Iraq
This story from the AP (by QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA) contains some guarded good news from Iraq. Here's two thirds of the lead paragraph:
A spokesman for the biggest Shiite party Thursday predicted a breakthrough on the constitution within the next two days, as negotiators scrambled to finish the draft by next week's deadline.
But what's the last third of the lead paragraph? you ask. Here it is:
A roadside bomb killed four more U.S. soldiers in a city north of Baghdad.
This is like one of those tests--which of these objects does not belong with the others. It's as if the AP style manual says that all good news from Iraq must be followed with a report on the deaths of Americans, no matter how jarring a non-sequitur is created.
A spokesman for the biggest Shiite party Thursday predicted a breakthrough on the constitution within the next two days, as negotiators scrambled to finish the draft by next week's deadline.
But what's the last third of the lead paragraph? you ask. Here it is:
A roadside bomb killed four more U.S. soldiers in a city north of Baghdad.
This is like one of those tests--which of these objects does not belong with the others. It's as if the AP style manual says that all good news from Iraq must be followed with a report on the deaths of Americans, no matter how jarring a non-sequitur is created.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:03 PM 
