Here’s a more expansive story on the Baghdad Peter saga.

NBC really didn’t want to have to can him.

Another NBC executive said that Mr. Shapiro had hoped that the Iraqis pressured Mr. Arnett in the interview and that he would say, “There was a guy behind this orange curtain with an AK-47.”

He couldn’t oblige them, though.

But during a phone call, Mr. Arnett told Mr. Shapiro that he felt no such pressure, a spokeswoman said.

Here’s my favorite part:

He complained: “The right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here,” Mr. Arnett writes in the column called “This War Is Not Working.” “I made the misjudgment which gave them the opportunity to do so.”

He also wrote, “I’ll never stop reporting on the truth of this war.”

I believe you, Petie. It’s hard to stop something you’ve never started.