The day the West saw images of Saddamite statues tumbling down - with Iraqis gleefully on top of them - my gut was ready to overlook media tales of Iraqi tumult and anger and Iranian-instigated protests with Iranian-funded banners, loudly protesting against "Western occupation."

You know, the unrealistic timbre of "Our sewer backed up! Death to the infidel dogs!"

Earlier reports confirm that these outpourings of venom are few and far between. But now we're receiving even more stunning descriptions of the Iraqi response to the Anglo-American liberation force:

IT'S ENDLESSLY FASCINATING to watch the interactions between U.S. patrols and the residents of Baghdad. It's not just the love bombing the troops continue to receive from all classes of Baghdadi--though the intensity of the population's pro-American enthusiasm is astonishing, even to an early believer in the liberation of Iraq, and continues unabated despite delays in restoring power and water to the city. It's things like the reaction of the locals to black troops. They seem to be amazed by their presence in the American army. One group of kids in a poor neighborhood shouted "Mike Tyson, Mike Tyson" at Staff Sergeant Darren Swain; the daughter of a diplomat on the other hand informed him, "One of my maids has the same skin as you."

It's things like the way the women old and young flirt outrageously with GIs, lifting their veils to smile, waving from high windows, and shyly calling hello from half-opened doors. Or the way the little girls seem to speak much better English than the little boys who are always elbowing them out of the way. Or the way the troops get a sense of the gender violence endemic in the culture: Yesterday in the poor al Sahliya neighborhood two sweet 12 to 14-year-old sisters on a rooftop who introduced themselves to me and Staff Sergeant Gannon Edgy as Souha and Samaha were chased away by a rock-wielding male relative. His violent anger hinted at problems to come here.

But you won't see much of this on TV or read about it in the papers. To an amazing degree, the Baghdad-based press corps avoids writing about or filming the friendly dealings between U.S. forces here and the local population--most likely because to do so would require them to report the extravagant expressions of gratitude that accompany every such encounter. Instead you read story after story about the supposed fury of Baghdadis at the Americans for allowing the breakdown of law and order in their city.

In the first link, Amir Taheri explains the press agents' magnetic attraction to protests as a desire to film and broadcast something "hot." This, an egregious misrepresentation of the greatest humanitarian act in decades that is vindication for those wrongfully impuned as warmongers or Nazis or worse, is simply an attraction to commit a powerful breach of journalist ethics.

(Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.)