BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Iraqi government's campaign to win support for the country's new constitution has won the critical backing of the most influential Shiite religious leader, less than a month before a national referendum on the draft charter. […] Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, meeting with aides Thursday in the holy city of Najaf, urged his followers to vote "yes" on the new basic law, according to two top officials in al-Sistani's organization. The officials refused to be identified because they are not authorized to speak for the reclusive cleric.

There is hope yet. The real question is who do you want to see prevail… and why? The media is doing everything it can to report a “near civil war” situation, but nobody benefits from that except the anti-American forces at work in Iraq.

This article took three paragraphs about US and Iraqi dead before it got to naming Sistani’s support. They are using the literary term “bracketing” (to lead into, and out of, information with a theme you want to highlight) to influence the reader’s opinion of the information… why?