- Associated Press

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Fallujans are to begin trickling back this week, but a month after the battle for the city, devastation is everywhere. Burned out cars block streets, even homes that still stand are missing roofs or walls, dead dogs litter narrow alleys.

Destruction is not total. The only damage at a benzene storage facility on the edge of town is the deterioration from years of neglect. At the end of a long block of leveled homes, a children's clinic stands untouched.

"It really looks like a time warp: Somebody left for the day and was told not to come back because of the operation," said Lt. Cmdr. Larry Merola, a Navy Seabee reservist from Stoughton, Mass., who leads a team that checks buildings important to the city's life — pharmacies, offices, gas distribution points.

Even as the U.S. military pummeled parts of the city into rubble, engineers were laying plans for rebuilding. But much of that work remains, even as the first groups from the 250,000 people who fled are to start returning Thursday.

The consistent bias of the Associated Press continues to amaze me for whatever reason. Yes, I should be used to it, but I cannot get over the way the AP gladly jumps all over the United States yet defends and even embeds their reporters with terrorists killing innocent Iraqis.

Arthur Chrenkoff writes his 17th Good News from Iraq post which details where the Coallition is in rebuilding Iraq. While the AP would rather focus on the negative, Chrenkoff continues to dig through the global media and find positive stories.

Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Cross-posted at In the Bullpen

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