Things Fall Apart

And today was a brutal day across Baghdad. I responded 5 minutes after a suicide bomber drove a bomb into a National Police checkpoint. Blew it to smithereens. Severely wounded about a dozen, and half of them surely died later. They were a mess. Killed one outright. As we were securing the area and treating those still alive, we took small arms fire. ... Anyway, after all that, I imagine you rooting around and I can smile again.

Taylor, 37, was killed by an IED in Baghdad on Oct. 22.

Mundell
Oct. 20, Fallujah

This is the sort of thing that goes on here. A couple weeks ago, Major Mouhammed, commander of headquarters company, got kidnapped in Baghdad while he was on leave. They let him go the next day. Two days ago, the [Iraqi] battalion doctor was murdered there and Maj. Lathe, 1st Company commander, was badly wounded when he went to identify the body. My guy, Captain Achmed, is late coming back from leave because he was threatened and had to move his family. Nice place, isn't it?

Foyteck
Oct. 21, Baghdad

[in] Mosul we were being at-tacked every day. Out here we are not the targets. It's one religion against an-other, we are just caught in the middle. However, if we are in the way, they will attempt to get rid of us as well. The problem here is they [the officers in charge] are limiting what we are "allowed" to do. ... If we get shot at, they want us to run. I mean, what kind of job does that mean we are doing? We take away bombs from people but we are not allowed to arrest them. Doesn't make much sense.