No turbans in government

We neither want to establish a religious nor a secular state in Iraq, we want a state that respects the identity of the Iraqi people and the identities of others

-- Shia political official Ali al-Dabagh, quoted by AP's Rawya Rageh

Writes Mr. Rageh: 

Kurds and alliance officials said both sides agreed that Iraq would not become an Islamic state, a desire also expressed by the country's most powerful Shiite cleric - Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

Sistani, as well?  This sounds like extremely good news.  Let's hope this Shia-Kurdish comity holds. 

It's interesting to note how the AP structured this article.  Here's the lede:

Ukraine withdrew 150 servicemen from Iraq on Saturday, beginning a gradual pullout, as Shiite and Kurdish politicians refined plans to form a coalition government that officials said includes an agreement not to turn the country into an Islamic state.

In other words, the AP placed the major positive news of an initial Iraqi agreement to separate mosque and state after noting the minor fact of Ukraine's troop withdrawal.  Translation:  because good news helps justify the war effort, we better downplay it as much as possible.

Am I over-reading?  Mention of the Shia-Kurd agreement comes in the 16th graf of the story--after we are treated to a compendium of bad news from Iraq:  from suicide  bombings at Mosul, to the friendly-fire death of a Bulgarian soldier to a completely egregious mention that over 1,500 U.S. servicemen have died in the country.  And the MSM wonders why it has engendered so much recent criticism!  It's not because of pajama-clad bloggers, but rather insufferably biased reporting. 

Journalism follows--or used to, at any rate--the precepts of the "inverted pyramid," where the most important facts of a news story received the biggest space and earlier placement in a column.  With the AP, however, the guiding technique seems more a "pyramid of denial."