Two thoughts on the quality of information coming out of Iraq:

First, it turns out it's 500 form letters (not 11) that were sent to hometown newspapers of soldiers in the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, and that the project was apparently the brainchild of the lieutenant colonel in command of the regiment. [link]

Hey, at least someone is taking responsibility for the project.

Second, the Bush administration has lately been pedalling the story that there's good news out of Iraq, but that the media isn't reporting it. Turns out this may not be the case.

The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon-funded military newspaper, Stars & Stripes, did an unscientific survey that found that more than one-third of the soldiers surveyed reported their own morale as "low" and that a substantial percentages reported that they would not reenlist, that they were not properly trained for their current mission, and that they did not feel that their missions were clearly defined. [link] [link to Stars & Stripes series]

"Unscientific", by the way, refers to the fact that the survey used a "convenience" sample (polling people at specific bases who were available and willing to talk), rather than a "random" sample. This means that the results may not be representative of the soldiers in Iraq as a whole. Still, the results are startling, and give the lie to the Bush administration's latest rhetoric.