NEW YORK TIMES: “In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army.”

Noting the sudden, er, surge of good-news stories from Iraq, reader C.J. Burch emails: “I think some media big wigs are getting nervous about their legacy.”

UPDATE: Or maybe not. Page 14?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Of course we support the troops. We’ve always supported the troops!