BBC News

Virginia's John Warner made a statement today in which he encouraged President Bush to get the attention of Iraqi President Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki by ordering a symbolic troop reduction in Iraq.

The wisdom behind any such pull-out can be debated (I think it would be dunderheaded) but his comments were directed toward a course of action that he feels would motivate the Iraqi government's ineffective leader.

So, what is the headline at BBC News in an article covering Warner's remarks?

Top Republican urges Iraq pullout

It isn't until one gets beyond the headline and begins to read the article that one discovers that Warner's dunderheaded comments weren't actually calling for a "redeployment" or "retreat" or "pullout" as the headline would like to persuade the reader.

An influential Republican senator has called for the withdrawal of some 5,000 US troops from Iraq by the year's end.

Senator John Warner, former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the US needed to show that its commitment to Iraq was not open-ended.

Maybe this is just shoddy journalism or something more sinister. Who knows? It does seem to be business as usual at the BBC.