Wikileaks will soon release almost 400,000 documents on the US war in Iraq since 2003. Late last night, under an agreement with the organisation, certain news outlets were allowed to run advance stories based on the material. The similarities and contrasts in the coverage, even amongst these privileged few, is striking.

The New York Times features "A Grim Portrait of Civilian Deaths in Iraq" but makes clear at the outset that "most civilians, by far, were killed by other Iraqis", citing "systematic sectarian cleansing" as the leading cause. Then the report, by Sabrina Tavernise and Andrew Lehren turns to the American military, adding a striking bit of comment linking to another US intervention: "The documents also reveal many previously unreported instances in which American soldiers killed civilians --- at checkpoints, from helicopters, in operations. Such killings are a central reason Iraqis turned against the American presence in their country, a situation that is now being repeated in Afghanistan."