In the context of the great debate over whether the radical plunge in support for the Iraqi war was fueled primarily by the sectarian killing, poor decision-making by Americans, or the media’ concentration only on bad news-or all three and more- I was struck today reading the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Iraqi Digest”, the daily roundup from the front.

There were six items. None were about the recent arrests of militia members or at least the pretense that the Baghdad government promises changes, or Gen. Petraeus’s plans, or any losses in the enemy camp, or any acts of heroism by American soldiers as they sought to protect the fragile democracy they fostered.

Instead we get this: (1) Al Qaeda’s brag that it cowardly ambushed and killed an American consultant and three security contractors; (2) The US military “admits” that it raided the Sudanese Embassy in Baghdad; (3) Another American soldier will plead guilty to charges of rape and premeditated murder; (4) another Marine admits guilt to kidnapping and killing an Iraqi civilian; (5) 59 Iraqis were killed in a car bombing.

The sixth and apparently only “good news” story provided the balance to the five: 100 more of Saddam’s former government will face trial for genocide.

A person from Mars reading this would conclude today that Americans are only doing two things in Iraq: getting killed, and/or violating international law, raping, kidnapping, and murdering the innocent as they watch civilians get blown up.

In contrast on Page One, there is a flashy lead with “Pelosi Leads Dems to Early Victories” with lines following like, “Speaker Fulfills pledge..”; “A daunting agenda”, “Dems bleat Clock”, and so on.

Our Martian reader of all this might also logically ask, “Can’t these foolish earthlings get this brilliant and dynamic Speaker Pelosi over to Iraq to show their Gen. Petraeus how to fix things in 100 hours as she did at home?