Fussbett wrote:

Written by New York Times staffers ...NYT's password system deterred me from finding the article on the NYT site itself. "DEXTER FILKINS AND RICHARD A. OPP JR." combined to come up with this line I adore:

"If anarchy had been the goal on Tuesday, it was anarchy that unfolded."

This paragraph really starts off with a grammar bang too:

But the immediate focus of attention was Ansar al-Islam, a militant Islamic group that American officials believe has been plotting attacks against Western targets in Baghdad. The group, which operated training camps in the mountainous region of northern Iraq, was attacked and dispersed by U.S. forces during the war. Many of the group's fighters are believed to have fled to Iran.