Medary.com

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi insurgents savaged a U.S. patrol overnight, killing four soldiers and wounding six after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Iraq's leaders to end arguments over a constitution to help undermine the revolt.

OK, let me get this straight: Rumsfeld urged Iraq to get their constitution done. Hearing this, Iraqi "insurgents" went out and attacked U.S. forces. That's what the Reuters sentence says. The article directly implies a direct causal link between the two. We wonder how the Reuters reporter knows this.

We're certain that that is the conclusion the reporter and his editor wanted the reader to make. It seems to me that this story is crying out for an "Elsewhere in Iraq" somewhere. I sincerely doubt that the attack and Rumsfeld's statement are directly connected in the way the article plainly implies.

But since all of us in the newsroom know that Rumsfeld is an evil power-hungry Republican puppet of the ridiculous, illegitimate and stupid George W. Bush, it's OK to casually smear him like this.