NYTimes Tierney's faux Iraqi rejection letters for Pentagon "news"

In the most biting take on the fake news stories planted by the Pentagon in Iraqi papers, NY Times columnist John Tierney shows quite clearly why BushCo had to pay for the coverage: he got his hands on a bunch of the copy.

With rip-roaringly delusional titles like, "The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq" and "Iraqi Forces Capture Al Qaeda Fighters Crawling Like Dogs," you can see how Iraqi editors would have needed a ارتش to find a space for these.

Tierney has serious fun imagining the rejection letters; it's almost worth the cost of a subscription to Times Select. (Add Maureen Dowd and it's a gimme...)

Via NY Times Select
There is much to admire in your article on the Iraqi Security Forces. You memorably describe them "moving across the desert sands like the wind." But you do not introduce us to any of these "heroic" figures or describe their activities beyond a list of the weapons they seized.

You write that these soldiers "fight for freedom, wherever there is trouble," a revelation that would indeed be newsworthy to our readers across Iraq, not to mention the American military advisers. But our readers would remain skeptical unless you could provide more evidence.