Italy forced to backtrack on Iraq

In a frantic effort to cast Italy as the latest coalition partner to withdraw, the press got it wrong again.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was forced by Washington and London to backtrack on his surprise announcement that Italian troops would start leaving Iraq in September, the Italian press said today.

Berlusconi then qualified his remarks on pulling Italy's 3,300 soldiers out of southern Iraq in about six months, calling it "a wish".

Was it Berlusconi who was "forced to backtack" or the overzealous press. They were salivating over the possibility that Sgrena might have accomplished her aim and pushed the Italian government into this move. ie. Rather, you want a story to be true bad enough, you make it so.