A case of newspapers making the figures from Iraq look better

Certainly that is what New York Times reporter Damien Cave thinks.

Writing in yesterday's paper he takes issue with reports of the number of Iraqis who have returned form exile as the surge has led to iomproved security.

By all accounts, Iraqi families who fled their homes in the past two years are returning to Baghdad.
The description of the scope of the return, however, appears to have been massaged by politics. Returnees have essentially become a currency of progress.

Damien continues to say that

Under intense pressure to show results after months of political stalemate, the government has continued to publicize figures that exaggerate the movement back to Iraq and Iraqis’ confidence that the current lull in violence can be sustained.