LA Times screwed it up again

Yahoo has reported that "U.S. Steps Up Iraq Attacks Before Ramadan" in a new article on their website.

Recently the L.A. Times had reported that the Bush Administration would not make any major moves before the election. They say, "U.S. officials point out that there have been no direct orders to commanders to halt operations in the weeks before the November 2 U.S. election. Top administration officials in Washington are simply reluctant to sign off on a major offensive in Iraq at the height of the political season."

This paragraph is very different than their headline which says, "Major Assaults on Hold Until After U.S. Vote".

With that info in mind, Yahoo is now reporting that:

U.S. troops went on the offensive from the gates of Baghdad to the Syrian border Tuesday, pounding Sunni insurgent positions from the air and supporting Iraqi soldiers in raids on mosques suspected of harboring extremists.
American and Iraqi forces launched the operations ahead of Ramadan, expected to start at week's end, in an apparent attempt at preventing a repeat of the insurgent violence that took place at the start of last year's Muslim holy month.
Clashes broke out in a string of militant strongholds from Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, northward along the Euphrates Valley to the Syrian border town of Qaim — all major conflict areas.
Some of the sharpest exchanges took place in Hit, 90 miles northwest of Baghdad, where residents and hospital officials said U.S. aircraft attacked two sites, killing two people and wounding five. The U.S. command had no comment.
U.S. helicopters fired on a mosque in Hit on Monday and set it ablaze after the military said insurgents opened fire on Marines from the sanctuary. Scattered clashes were reported overnight, killing at least two Iraqis and wounding 15, hospital official said.

So we have people sitting around at the Los Angeles Times implying that nothing big will happen in Iraq, while not a day later we have reports from Yahoo (via AP) that the US and domestic forces are pushing on certain areas quickly and strongly in an effort to hit the enemy before and even during Ramadan.

This is happening while our forces are negotiating with al-Sadr forces to stop fighting, and I doubt this is a coincidence. It would make good sense to show those who wish to have peace that they can indeed go home, but to those who still want to fight a fight will be delivered to them. Keeping the momentum on our side is important and to think that Bush or his administration would not permit our forces to clean up some scum, or to exploit any discovered weakness is very much without merit.

It seems that once again, our modern day journalist thinks that they know exactly what the administration isn't saying based on what they wish they were saying. The LA Times translates 'no new major operations will probably be approved' to be 'we won't attack anyone'.

In this case, the irresponsible reporting didn't do much... if anything it might have even given us a little bit more of an advantage with this move we're now seeing since some of these 'insurgents' might have been caught by surprise.