"In the cemetery it was scary" "Shit ain't necessary, I'm gonna let you niggas, here we go" "I'm very deadly, I bust a nigga's head on top" "Body don't drop, call a cop" "Nigga know Little E, you know I got it locked" "Too hot, don't stop..." "Most of us don't see this on the news anymore." "We have reality TV instead" ""Joe Millionaire," "Survivor."" "Well, survive this-- a year in Baghdad without changing the channel." "Hit it, uh uh, 2003, uh" "Hit it, uh uh, 2003, uh" "They got us out here in Baghdad, life is hard" "Got us pullin' fuckin' two hours ago" "Got us pullin' fuckin' two hours ago" "And then they up it up to 8 between 1 2" "I don't give a fuck, I think I'm stuck in hell, uh" "I'd rather be there instead of jail..." "Joint Chiefs Chairman General Richard Myers has just returned from Iraq." "He praised US forces, saying morale is high and troops are committed to getting the job done." "They understand why they're in Iraq." "And they understand the greater mission..." "Move that piece of shit, Commo." "...the war in Iraq is just one part." "It's particularly interesting to note how well our forces are able to switch from tracking down the violent former Baath regime's fellow men to assisting Iraqis in rebuilding their country." "But the soldiers understand their mission, and they accept their conditions, and they accept their conditions, and we're working on the quality of life to make it better." "Welcome to Gunner Palace." "This palace was built after the first Gulf War" "This palace was built after the first Gulf War for Saddam Hussein's first wife." "Later it was given to his son Uday, who used it quite often to have his wild parties." "We dropped a bomb on it, and now we party in it." "This building was damaged during the war." "This here was like an open ballroom-type area." "Over here, you can see where the staircase is going." "The staircase is still pretty much safe to use." "You can get a good view." "We live from Baghdad, man, it's so sad..." "From inside of... the good portion of the building to the, uh..." "This is our party site right here." "You can see where I'm putting in" "I've got a driver's range for golf." "For people who like to play golf, I'm putting in three putting greens." "You can't-- you can't put that" "This is just speculation." "This is just speculation." "We heard before we moved in there this is one of Uday's weekend party palaces." "As you look around here, you can see it was certainly set up for that, a little paradise." "It's got a stocked fishing pond." "It has a lot of these little enclave buildings" "It has a lot of these little enclave buildings that are the most impractically set up that you could ever imagine." "You gotta wonder who he was trying to impress." "If you look around, you've got the circular bed in the back." "The gaudy furniture." "So, yes, we do know this was Uday's palace." "Everybody said so." "The locals said so." "The leaders said so." "They've said they never had an opportunity to be in here." "I think they've already got two down." "Okay, sounds good." "I'll get with you a little later." "The particular area of Adhamiya that I think that we've seen-- it's been so contentious-- has been the Abu Hanifa area in particular." "There's other areas as well, but that one's the one that appears to be the hotbed or the center of gravity for Baath party meetings." "You probably remember seeing Saddam Hussein-- it was the last time, as a matter of fact, that he was seen publicly lifted up on shoulders in a particular market square." "Well, that's the Abu Hanifa market square." "Hey, you're too close." "We've got a couple of wannabe movie stars." "These guys were trained to stop a Russian advance, artillery, the guns of Giessen." "They live to blow stuff up." "But out here in the streets of Baghdad, they become policemen, social workers and politicians." "Today, truant officers." "Two Humvees and a squad of heavily armed soldiers to take a glue-sniffing kid off the street." "He's not hurting anywhere." "He's just all fucked up." "Come on, get up there." "Come on." "This kid's been causing multiple problems." "We picked him up four or five times." "Everything from basic shoplifting to breaking and entering, burglary." "Just an orphaned kid." "He's on drugs." "One of them heartbreaker stories." "Nothing really you can do but try to get him into some kind of assistance." "This is an AFRTS news minute." "Children cheered on US soldiers as classes started at two schools in Abu Ghraib City, Iraq." "Officials say the schools were gutted and had been used to store weapons and ammunition." "But with hard work and cooperation from the local people, the troops were able to repair the damage." "Come here." "A lot of these guys are fresh out of high school." "They come from towns that read like an atlas of a forgotten America" "Pine Bluff, Chesterton, Argyle." "The area I come from is very small." "There's not much to it." "Not a lot of opportunities for people fresh out of high school." "So it was either community college or go do something." "Travel the world, get paid for it." "Experience places like this." "There's nothing else like it." "Nothing else like it." "I talked to just some friends I have back home, and their just perception of this is totally different." "They just say to me," ""Oh, you get to go out shopping and stuff like that, right?"" "It's like, "No no no." "It's much different than that."" "You try to explain the streets and the way these people have to live." "And they can't grip it." "They can't grip it." "I don't think anybody can." "It looks normal, but the soldiers sense something that I can't see." "Yeah, see..." "They really don't like Americans back here." "What's up?" "This is an AFRTS news minute." "This is an AFRTS news minute." "US troops mobilized during recent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan will not have to worry about their student loan obligations while fighting overseas." "The President has signed into law the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students... of 2003." "That extends for another two years benefits" "That extends for another two years benefits" "They're trying to hit the camp." "Is someone smoking a cigarette in the shitters?" " Where is it?" " It's in the box, dude." "It's in the fucking box?" "Dude, he was in my bag." "That's who bagged your crackers." "That's who ate my freakin' crackers." "This is my new room-- an old guardhouse in Gate 2." "A few minutes ago six mortars impacted a few hundred meters away, tossing up dirt and doing little damage." "But the only enemy they see here is the rat." "Never mind the explosions, get the rat." "Let me tell you how we kill a rat in Indiana." "Good." "I'll help you kill one of them things." "I have 10 roommates." "Wilf, the youngest, is 19." "He joined the Army at 17." "He hails from Colorado, just down the road from Columbine and South Park." "Wilf is what they call the new Army, the Army of One." "I'm PFC Stuart Wilf, and you have my permission to record this." "This is my shirt, and that's my desktop background." "The lovely sights." "Happy people." "The flag." "I've got a gun." "Yes." "Once, not on purpose." "But no one was hurt." "It was all right." "Once at a building." "Yes." "Possibly." "You never know." "Stranger things have happened." "Very well could have been." "And if there was someone in there, well, they weren't happy." "I can tell you that." "Every time I walk the streets" "I keep the eye on the foes" "Got slugs that'll fuck you in your dreams and goals" "Only roll with real thugs, and y'all niggas is pussy" "Got custom-made coffins for the faggot that pushed me" "Got custom-made coffins for the faggot that pushed me" "Fake niggas don't even tempt me, false move and you're dead" "Someone pushed the fuckin' brains out of the back of your head" "Fuck around and change my mind and get your family instead" "Run up in your crib and murder you while you sleepin' in bed." "Hey." "Hey, mister." "What?" "Back up." "Go on, back up." "Captain Garcia spotted a suspicious-Iooking bag up the road on the meridian." "It could be an improvised explosive device or IED as they're called." "IEDs are every soldier's worst fear." "They're in bags, pots, garbage piles, trees and sometimes even molded into concrete curbs." "Nobody wants to get near this thing, whatever it is." "Least of all, me." "It's empty." "We stopped traffic in both directions for 15 minutes for an empty plastic bag, and the Iraqis are laughing at us." "That was a really suspiciously placed bag of trash." "It's true." "No, I'm not scared because I believe in what I am doing, but I'm rather careful." "Yeah, so there's something different between "to be careful"" "and "to be scared of."" "If I was scared completely," "I would have left at my own job." "But I'm trying to be careful because I got my parents waiting for me to back safe and sound home." "And you know, God is basically watching over me, and He's the best protector and preserver." "I'm not trying to give an ideal picture about the American people." "They are just human beings." "They make mistakes and make good things like me and any other one, but American people are getting friendly with anyone, easily." "They don't have barriers." "If you sit with somebody for 10 minutes, he's gonna narrate his whole life story for you." "And this certainly rare to be found in somebody else." "Here we go." "We're in the middle of Baghdad." "Here we go." "We're in the middle of Baghdad." "We're doing another plug for Snapple Pink Lemonade." "When I retire, I want Snapple for the rest of my life." "Yeah, man, I've always dreamed of this my whole life." "When I was a kid, I always wanted to be the first one to go to strange faraway places, meet new people, be the first kid on my block with a confirmed kill and drink Snapple in Uday's old swimming pool." "I usually drink other things in the swimming pool." "They won't let us drink beer and alcohol and stuff like that." "Snapple's pretty good." "Mike Tyson." "The guy with the do-rag on his head is Mohammed Tyson." "The guy with the blindfold is Tyson's prisoner." "Mohammed, Mustafa and Roy are Charlie Battery's interpreters." "The prisoner is a known assassin, hired to kill Iraqis who are cooperating with the coalition." "Mohammed and Roy saw the assassin driving down the street today on his motorcycle." "So they jumped out of the bushes and tackled him." "We suppose that you arrest the most important person." "I talk to him, by the way, for an hour before I come here." "He has a very strong personality, a well confidence in himself, and he knows what he's doing and what he's speaking." "Even I've told him several times that he's going to be in jail, so confess, tell everything that you know." "He said, "I don't mind." "I can go to jail." "I don't care about it."" "Let them pack the nice gats with the hollow tips in 'em" "Bodies look like polka-dots from the hole I put in 'em" "Me and my thug niggas specialize in splitting those wigs" "Gotta a killer squad that's thorough, into toys like Flynt" "Our crew will be big" "I told your act he's fucking with thugs" "Mr. Crief is so quick to put a slug in your mug, fake-ass bitch." "Basil!" "Basil is the coolest Iraqi I've ever met." "We both like having a good time." " Yes." " We're both pretty positive, I think." "Oh, yeah." "Not each other." "He might wanna fuck me, but, uh... no." "Secretary Rumsfeld said terrorists" "Secretary Rumsfeld said terrorists are starting to realize things are changing in favor of the Iraqi people." "They see the Iraqi Governing Council getting on its feet." "I think he's pissed at that guy." "The guy across the table from him is saying it's the mosque that's doing this to the coalition." "That's what pissed this guy off." "Gentlemen, gentlemen." "Please." "Remember, we had this talk about acting civilly?" "Two months ago-- two months ago-- you guys-- gentlemen, please!" "About two months ago, we talked about acting civilly." "You've come so far, so fast." "Please let's not digress." "I'm sure we can get the same discussion done without screaming across the table." "Now is the issue that we have one of our council members that's not showing up because he's been threatened?" "Yes." "Could one of you, when we break, come to me with as much information that you have on who's threatening him and when and where, and I'll do what I can?" "Certainly, if we haven't armed him yet, we're at the position where we need to go ahead and give him a weapons card and a weapon." "You have glasses on?" "You have some sort of eye protection?" "You have glasses on?" "You have some sort of eye protection?" "There you go." "Is it on "safe" now?" "You couldn't shoot it because it's on "safe."" "So you want to push it over." "There you go." "Okay, good." "And make sure you aim nice and low into the sandbags." "Into the sandbags." "The sandbags." " Okay, aim into the sandbags." " Okay." "Into the bags." "You know what I'm talking about?" "Yeah." "Not high, low." "Into the" " There you go." "That's good." " I'm afraid you are" "No, that's good." "You're good." "You're good, but aim into the bags." " Okay, that's good." " Good?" "You're good." "You feel comfortable with it?" "There you go." "Now let's see where to squeeze the trigger." "Now take it off the safety." "See?" "That's it." "You got it." "You good?" "You look nervous." "Are you okay?" "All right." "From the AFRTS news center in Washington, this is the "Two-Minute Report."" "this is the "Two-Minute Report."" "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday urged Congress to pass the President's $87 billion supplemental budget request for Iraq and Afghanistan." "Mr. Rumsfeld said most of the money will go to support US troops, who he said, "Need it and need it soon."" "Smoking weed, can't smoke in the army" "Smoking weed, can't smoke in the army" "Nigga trying to harm me, bomb me, don't give a fuck" "Vietnam-- putting it down" "Coming down, North Carolina funky sound" "Get down from the C-Town, buck, shit" "Come down, tuck it down with my tight grip 20" rims on the side" "Diamonds in my teeth, look." "Do you know where the mother is?" "Do you know where the mother is?" "I'm sorry?" "They found her in the street?" "Yes." "Where's the mommy?" "Oh, she's crying." "Look at her features." "They're so formed." "She just look like a little, like a little..." "My wife gave birth to our first son June 30 while I was out here, so..." " Boy or a girl?" " Little boy." "I've seen pictures, but I haven't gotten to hold him yet." "This is SpongeBob SquarePants." "He's very popular back in the United States." "One of my heroes." "Today what we're doing" "Today what we're doing is we got a recent tip of counterintelligence that we have number 89 on the blacklist, an elderly gentlemen, Basil Osan Hussein al-Habib, about 60 years old." "So we expect a soft compliant entry." "It won't be a difficult raid to do." "The particular individual in question, number 89, was the former Director General for Chemical Weapons Development for the Ministry of Defense, so he's of some value to us, mainly for questioning, and we'll pass him on" "and send him back to BiOp." "It's a quiet night." "Two coming in!" "How you doing, sir?" "Good good." "It's always good to get your man, isn't it?" "Roger that, sir." " Has he been quiet?" " Yeah, he's pretty cooperative, sir." " He speaks pretty good English, too." " Okay, where's his wife?" "Sir, his wife is here." "We didn't wake his kids up." "His kids are still sleeping." "I told them just to lay down." "It wasn't a big thing." "Okay, good good." "Wife doing all right?" "Roger, sir." "He's diabetic." "Medics has the medicine." "We have all the medicine we need for him, okay?" "We're good." "You have all your medicine you need, right?" " Yes, we got it." " Okay." "It's okay." " Ma'am." " Osan." "Hey, LT." "There's an IED up ahead." "There's an IED up ahead!" "I'm out of here, like 2000." "Alaska, Hawaii, Texas," "Oklahoma, Louisiana, all parts in-between." "You know what I'm saying?" "These flies over here are awful." "The good news is you got your back to it." "You won't see what's coming." ""Hey, gimme 18 Whoppers." He's like, "What?"" ""Hey, gimme 18 Whoppers." He's like, "What?"" "I was like, "18 Whoppers." He's like, "No one ever orders this big."" "I was like, "I do." "Gimme my Whoppers."" "He reaches over and grabs a Coke and just goes" "Food is good." "I love Burger King." "I love McDonald's." "I love all these guys." "Food." "Food is good." "All right, all right." "Hey, what's going on?" "Whoo!" "Maybe it's all just burned into my mind now." "I'm just imagining all of it." "Who knows?" "We'll keep one SAW back here." "We'll keep one SAW back here." "Just know where your people are." "We got the rear, so you start holding 'em like you fucking mean it." "Right now it's not 20 guys with armed weapons anymore." "They said it's four, and they might be across the river." "So just keep that in mind, keep your eyes open, because if it's anything like last night, it's gonna be ugly, gentlemen." "When we first got here, they were waving at us." "And next minute, soon as we drive by, we'd get shot at." "Or some days they'd look at us mean and give us gestures that they didn't want us there." "You know, you just get the feeling that these guys, they don't care too much about you, so they will take your life." "If they don't have any direct family members in the military, then it's just entertainment for them." "This is just entertainment for them." "A lot of people watch the war because it was almost 24/7 action footage, better than any movie, better than any sitcom." "This is real life drama right here." "But soon as the coverage stopped when the war was over, there was no entertainment anymore unless you have some live footage of someone getting shot in the street or something like that." "No one cares." "Hey, it's clear." "Hey, it's clear." " Cleared." " Don't fucking do it!" "Don't fight me, motherfucker!" "He was going for this one." "I punched him in his fucking face." "Oh, yeah?" "Yeah, there's his glasses right there." "Intelligence says that hard-core bomb builders are in this house." "They're looking for a few brothers." "So I'm working." "I'm working, too." "I don't know what it's for." "I'm from..." "Medical Technology." "Keep your mouth shut." "It's okay." "It's okay." "You keep your mouth shut." "Hey, yeah." "Be quiet, all right?" "Be quiet!" "Just shut your mouth." "Hey, shut up!" "Pick him up." "He goes outside the wall." " This one?" " No, the reporter right here." "The reporter guy likes to talk." "He goes outside the wall." "Just like that." ""Shut him up."" "Yeah." "No evidence of bomb building was found in the house." "All of the brothers were detained and transferred to Abu Ghraib Prison." "Before we went on the patrol, we all had a gut feeling that something was gonna happen." "When that explosion took off, it was just a bright light, and I looked closer, and I saw the casualties laying on the ground." "As I went up, I saw the soldier lying there on the ground moving, so I knew she was all right and talking." "But then I noticed her left eye maybe had shrapnel in it." "So we went ahead and put a patch on her eye." "That's when we started hearing gunfire." "And then the MPs just lit up the rooftops behind us." "At that point, I was grabbing my weapon, plus staying over the patient, 'cause she didn't have her Kevlar on at the time." "As soon as the gunfire was over and we found out everyone was all right, no one got hit, then we proceeded to get everyone in their vehicles." "We didn't get maybe 50 meters from that area, and the second one went off." "This is an AFRTS news minute." "This is an AFRTS news minute." "Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace says the military is working quickly to make sure all service members have access to body armor with the latest technology." "General Pace and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld" "Six hours later, an IED meant for a Humvee destroyed two civilian buses." "Dozens were killed and wounded." "When you look at the ground, you can't really see the blood 'cause the road is, like, black, so it just looks like water on the ground, right?" "And the bus?" "Oh God." "I ain't want to look at the bus no more." "The Humvee got messed up bad." "Our guys are still safe." "Our guys are still good, so thank the Lord for that, for our sake." "Just one more day in Baghdad." "Yo yo yo yo" "Hey, yo, sometimes I just stand in the zone" "Contemplating and praying to God" "That I get a chance to go home" "Did you ever get to lay in the prone" "Receiving enemy fire while slugs barely missing your dome?" "Yo, I noticed that my face is really aging so quickly" "'Cause I've seen more than your average man in his 50s" "I'm 24 here, I got two kids and a wife" "Having visions of them, picturing me up out of their life" "This is real life, homey, and it's just so deep" "And it's so deep when you go through long weeks with no sleep" "IEDs be going off while we out on patrol" "Scrap metal be ripping through your fucking skin and your bones" "Got a soldier now, and he's trying to put up a fight" "But you really knowing he's taking the last breaths of his life." "That's for you, baby." "This is an AFRTS news minute." "This is an AFRTS news minute." "The Department of Defense says a new initiative called Horizontal Fusion will make it easier for war fighters to do their jobs." "Horizontal Fusion is a system that enables service members" "Horizontal Fusion is a system that enables service members to instantly obtain and share military intelligence with many sources by going to one place on their computer." "Program Manager" "It's Thursday night, wedding night." "It's normal to hear shots out here." "People are just celebrating." "Wedding parties." "Drummond, calm down." "It's wedding day." "They always shoot up in the air on wedding day." "Calm down!" "It's all right." "I'm already ready." "It's turning out to be more than a normal Thursday." "Downtown by the mosque, a large group of pro-Saddam demonstrators is trying to incite a riot." "Rocks are being thrown." "There are reports of weapons in the crowd." "Gunships, M1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles are circling the area, hoping to diffuse the situation without bloodshed." "So you went to the damn riot, a Baathist riot, and you got a damn T-shirt out of it." "Outstanding!" "I even got a headband, sir." "That's a handsome-Iooking devil, too, isn't he?" " Got the headband, too." " Too bad he's scared as shit and dresses up like women now." "Did you know that?" "He hides in women's clothing so he doesn't get caught anymore." "Yeah." "I wonder if he wears panties, too." "So what is it that you do here?" "So what is it that you do here?" "People come to the gate and they say they have all this kind of..." "I got information on such and such, like terrorist activity, attacks on the compound, weapons of mass destruction, da-da-da-da-da." "I sit here with an interpreter and figure out if they're telling the truth or not." "At first, I took everything and wrote it down 'cause I didn't know." "After a few months, you start to weed out the liars from the drunks from the people who are semi sort of telling the truth but just don't know where the hell it is." "It's not too bad." "One time I took these pictures of these guys while they were blindfolded and put all this information down." "I sat there with my interpreter," "I showed them the pictures and I was like, "Is this you?"" "And they're like, "Yeah yeah."" "Then I'd flip it over to the English, 'cause they couldn't read it." "I said, "This shit here tells me that you're Fedayeen terrorists, and your whole family is Fedayeen terrorists." "You'd better start cooperating, or you're gonna see Cuba real soon."" "And then they started crying." "I mean, I'm talking guys like 6'2", probably about 205 Ibs." "of pure muscle." ""Oh, gosh, don't send me there."" "You know?" "The colonel was with us." "He stayed on the median and you know, just coordinated over the radio with ready 6, and Captain K ran everything that went on, like usual." "And Bravo was out there." "Holy fucking shit!" "I'm gonna fucking kill all of you." "What the hell was that?" "Pentagon officials said Tuesday coalition forces are making steady and remarkable progress towards stability in Iraq." "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said," ""Since the death of Uday and Qusay Hussein, more Iraqis are coming forward with useful information and that has led to scores of raids."" "Yo yo yo yo" "Yo yo yo yo" "Yo, it's Baghdad, Iraq" "And I'm patrolling the streets" "I got two Humvees and my M16" "My whole team is on the brink, so we ready to go" "It's combat, Commo, niggas running the show." "Adhamiya has been on edge for the last week." "Rumors of demonstrations, Saddam sightings, reports of armed men near the mosque." "The response is a Psy-Op." "The whole unit is out on the streets today, passing out bumper stickers and talking to people." "Well, we want 'em to understand that we're here to help them." "We don't want to change his mind." "We don't want him to hate Saddam Hussein or anything." "If he likes him, he likes him." "But I want him to understand that he's out of power now, and we want to help them." "We really do." "No good." " Sex with Saddam?" " Yes." "Two lines, two words..." "Saddam is hero." "Chocolate." "America." "Good America." "America good, America." "America good, America." "Mister, mister." "Don't fuck with me, jokers, I will break you off proper" "Don't fuck with me, jokers, I will break you off proper" "Give shots to your ribs, give your kids chocolate" "It's the show stopper, you must be off your rocker" "Step to the fate" "AKA, body dropper" "I've seen a lotta hot, nice and bloody days" "But I'll pick the fight, baby, going out in a blaze." "The G group right now," "The G group right now, there's not a whole lot of counterintelligence on them." "We do know that it's some shady business." "They've been dealing with weapons trafficking." "It's a very tight clan." "They will do anything to protect Sheik Majid, although he himself doesn't pose much of a threat being about a 60-year-old man." "Very well connected." "Even the children in here give early warning as to troop movement in the sector." "That's why we chose to go in when we did." " What's our total count?" " 1 2." " Is that with Mike?" " Yeah." "We roll out, no getting our gear" "I'm gonna let your boys know we don't have no fear, your heart is racing pacing 'cause you're about to go through this mission" "Everybody, pay a-fucking-ttention, we about to start lynching" "We about to gather up, now, niggas, here we go, pull bodies off in cuffs" "We don't give a fuck when it's time to get there" "We boys don't really know, we really don't care." "Go!" "Go!" "This is not a drill, in the battlefield" "In Iraq, yo, this shit's fucking real" "Yo, it's getting deep, it's getting fucking grimy" "On raids every night, got the crew behind me" "Four men run in your house, clear the room, boom" "Over here!" "Over here!" "Get down, get down!" "Down down!" "Get down!" "Hold on, hold on!" " Get down!" "Get down!" " Get down!" "Get down!" " Down!" " Get down!" " Get down!" " Down, get down!" "Go to the right." "Where's team two?" "Come in, come in!" "Come on, come on, come on!" "Get me security." "Security!" "Security!" "Go go go go go!" "Go!" " Come come come." " Come come come." "Come come." "Come on, come on." " Is it clear?" " Clear." "Coming in!" "Friendlies coming in!" "Friendlies coming in!" "You can start with the females." "The sheik is out." "Gone to Fallujah, they say." "Don't know when he'll be back." "We went to breach the gate, and we hit it with the Humvee." "We continued to come in." "The car was right in front of the door." "The car breached the door for us, so we were able to go right in." "Worked out pretty well." "Yo yo, out of your house, oh" "Flexi-cuffed and shit" "You in the detainee pit starting to shit, yo" "Steady crying, getting arrested" "Trying to pray to Allah 'cause he didn't bless you" "You did the wrong thing going against 2/3" "Yo, I represent HHB" "We the raid masters, yo" "We got the shit that got the gun blasters, yo 50 cal blowing your brain, oh" "I've been to the lead, and I'm going insane" "It's all about this shit right here, the sandbox" "Yo, blow Haji right out of his fucking socks." "The total haul was $48,000 in Iraqi dinar, a couple of weapons and some ledger books." "Sheik Majid stopped by the palace a few days later." "He was arrested then released." "Later that week, the sheik stopped by with a home-cooked meal for the colonel as if nothing had happened and they were old friends." "Welcome to Gunnerpalooza 4." "I'm Gunner 6." "Welcome to Gunner Palace." "Anybody new that hasn't been here before?" "This is all our guys here?" "We got one guy?" "That's right." "Gunner Palace, basically an adult paradise, all for you." "For awhile, I couldn't sleep for awhile." "It was the first time I ever had to kill somebody." "So I know for me-- you know, it tore me up pretty bad." "But after awhile, I learned to deal with it because if I look at it as, you know, it's either gonna be him or it's gonna be me," "I know I'm not doing the wrong thing." "I'm just following orders, so I'd rather it not be me." "So I had to, you know," "I learned to live with it." "I live in a place where the streetlights never come on" "I live in a place where the streetlights never come on" "And every time you step outside" "It's like you're hearing a sad song, yo" "Every day I been praying for my life" "I got a little boy, I'm just trying to make it home to my wife" "Not trying to be a victim of the IED" "The streets is full of trash" "Trying to watch where I place my feet." "All right, it's open." "We've got a breach on the second door." "Where's my weapon at?" " Go go go!" " Go go!" " You ready?" " Yup." " It's empty." " It's empty?" " Yes." " Good, that makes it easy." "You weren't gone very long." "You weren't gone very long." "I don't feel like I'm defending my country anymore," "I don't feel like I'm defending my country anymore, and that kinda sucks." "That's the whole purpose when you're a kid to join the Army." "You want to be able to feel like, you know, defend your country, but we're not defending our country anymore." "I know we haven't defended our country in a while." "But you know... it's like" " I don't know." "I am 'cause nothing beats it." "Nothing beats it, you know?" "We all talk about when we're gonna go home, how proud we're gonna be to be combat vets." "How many people can say they're combat veterans?" "You know, 19 years old, I fought in a war." "During Friday prayer," "During Friday prayer," "Lieutenant Colgan and a squad from Survey come down to the mosque to monitor what the imam is saying." "Some weeks he condemns the coalition." "But this week, he's calling for calm after the demonstrations." "The kids are really funny 'cause at first, they'll be like, "Mister, mister,"" "and then they'll realize, "Oh, misses, misses."" "And then they want to talk to you even more." "You get swarms of kids right in front of you." "You're trying to be friendly to 'em, while looking around, making sure no one's gonna shoot you." "But the guys are even funnier." "You have 'em walk by you, and then you see 'em." "Their heads still turn and they about trip over themselves trying to walk." "And then you have some people just looking and about crash their cars." "I don't think they've ever seen a woman in uniform." "Some days it feels almost normal here." "Lieutenant Colgan and his team talk to the neighbors." "People wave as they drive past." "It's how you hope it would be-- peaceful." "Sam, you are not looking." "Sam, you are not looking." "Sam, don't make me hold you at gunpoint." "After you establish eye contact, right?" "Go into your mac mode." "Then give her the what's up nod." "Like, what's up?" "If she reply back with that, then you move towards her to engage in casual conversation." "Yeah, just talk, find out her name, you know, where she lives, how old she is." "Make sure she's legal age." "Walk to her, and ask her her name." "Don't be yelling across the room." ""Yo, what's your name, sweetie?"" "No no." "Eye of the tiger, Sam." "Eye of the tiger." "Come on, focus." "Focus, all right, focus." "Go get her, baby." "Go get her." "Let's go." "He got the mac." "There it goes." "What's up?" "I'm out again with Lieutenant Colgan and his newly named Tombraiders." "Yeah, that was behind us." "That was an IED and close." "Lieutenant Colgan thinks it went off next to the Abu Hanifa Mosque or somewhere in the market area." "Gunner Main, Gunner 6." "Gunner Main, over." "Large crowd, trying to figure out what happened." "I'll give you a better tip..." "Just boom." " What?" " Boom boom." "Big." "Man, it's close." "It's black." "Take here and run." "Lieutenant Colgan is trying to figure out what happened." "Did anyone see anything?" "Did it just explode?" "Or did someone drop it and run?" "The crowd is getting angry, not because a bomb went off a few hundred meters away, but because we're there." "Watch the rocks." "They're throwing 'em to your left." " What?" " I said watch the rocks." "They already tried to throw some on the left-hand side." "They're throwing rocks." "Lieutenant Colgan has decided to stay in the area." "But he's keeping the Humvees moving in an effort to disperse the crowd." "Taking potshots with those rocks." "The crowd is borderline violent." "Starting to throw stones." " Yeah." " Real big one." "We're gonna stay here to monitor the area." "A second bomb was found later." "Both bombs were meant for our patrol at the mosque earlier in the day." "I feel lucky, real lucky." "There's a lot of stuff we get under the cracks." "Lot of stuff can happen here." "You know what I mean?" "And if people aren't watching back in the States, kinda scares you because you just get brushed under the carpet, like all the soldiers who die here every day." "Almost every day there's an attack and someone gets wounded or someone dies." "But I'm just afraid that no one's gonna know." "No one's gonna know the struggle you're going through." "You know what I mean?" "My work is done." "I'm leaving in the morning." "I can just pick up and leave." "But they have seven months to go." "Part of me wants to stay to see all of them make it through this and part of me wants to be at home, safe with my family." "10 hours later in a world away from Baghdad," "I was home with my family." "For me, the war was over." "Three weeks later," "I received an e-mail from Gunner Palace." ""Dear Mike, it is my sad duty to inform you that First Lieutenant Ben Colgan has been killed in action." "He was killed while trying to block the bridge by the Abu Hanifa Mosque, to catch a vehicle associated with an RPG attack on our compound." "He died knowing that you loved and respected him for who he was and what he was doing." "I know that you had a special affinity for Ben." "We all mourn his loss."" "Ben's death was close to home." "He was from Seattle, like me." "I knew the kind of house he grew up in, the mountains he dreamt of." "He had two daughters." "Looking at my own daughter," "I couldn't think of his death, only his life." "Just before Christmas specialist Billie Grimes was on the cover of "Time" magazine with two other gunners to represent the American soldier as Person of the Year." "The next day, Lieutenant Matt Saltz and PFC Stuart Moore were killed by an IED." "A war most thought to be over was just beginning." "And the tears started flowing" "As soon as they called out roll" "Can you all really expect us to keep it under control?" "What could you tell a man who just saw his two friends die" "Right before his eyes, except sip on his gin?" "Trying to drown out his hurt and pain in a sea full of sorrow" "Living only for the day is the motto we follow." "I speak that real flow after ringing alarms" "This country needs us way more than when we needed Saddam" "We start out our day by readjusting our sights" "And checking out the damage that happened from mortars last night" "Yeah, I think the ICDC is starting to snitch" "Telling what goes where and which places to hit" "If they prove me otherwise, no intent to be shady" "I blame it on this war that made me paranoid and crazy" "But this ain't fact, it's only theory" "In my statements about the struggles, stress and pain every day we facing" "Trials and tribulations daily we do" "And not always this life's pain we wash away in our pool" "When we take a dip, we try to stick to the script" "But when those guns start blazing and our friends get hit" "That's when our hearts start racing and our stomachs get woozy" "'Cause for y'all, this is just a show" "But we live in this movie." ""Captain Robert Brewer listens as an Iraqi woman begs for the release of her son who's been taken into custody."" ""My son blew you guys up." "Will you please bring him back to me?" "He's a good guy." "He's really a good boy." "He only shot eight mortars at you." "It's not that bad, is it?"" "Anytime we would ever stoop to a level of taking it personal, we end up putting ourselves in the same shoes that the terrorists are." "We stay focused." "If anything, we say take it personal, that just gives you a boost of adrenaline to continue on with the mission." "Coming up!" "Coming in!" "I didn't want to say anything that was inappropriate." "Get in there." "Reach in there." "You see it?" "Get down in there." " Come on." "No." " No?" "Bullshit." "Yeah, you didn't go down far enough in there." "Oh, dude!" "Damn, this just gets better and better." "Three RPG launchers." "You know how many years in jail that is?" "That is 30 years in jail." "We scored up here." "RPGs." "Oh, that's what I'm talking about." "You know what?" "I gave you your chance." "All you had to tell me was, "Yes, I know where some RPGs,"" "and I would have let you go." "Well..." "New cell phone?" "God damn, these people have money." "These are brand-new cell phones." "Two, three, four, five, six." "You're the neighbor, right?" " No relationship, huh?" " Where's this coming from?" " This guy speaks English, by the way." " Where's this?" "Where's all this shit coming from?" "Look at that." " What do you think about that?" " I don't know." "You don't know?" "He says, "I'm a merchant."" "You're a merchant?" "No, hell, I ain't touching his feet." "Keep your fucking eyes closed." "He doesn't have any shoes." "When 2/3 leaves the palace, the ICDC will take over security at Adhamiya." "The question is if the insurgency grows, will they stand and fight?" "Go go." "Right there." "Y'all are looking and sounding good this morning." "Give yourselves a hand." "From the AFRTS news center in Washington, this is the "Two-Minute Report."" "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday," ""The President's $87 billion budget request is an honest summary of what it will cost the United States to continue the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next year."" "All these pieces where only the paint is chipped off" "All these pieces where only the paint is chipped off is where it hit the door." "But right here, it went through here." "Right there." "All the way through into..." "the glass that broke." "The friction that broke the glass and came inside cut his nose right here." " Is he all right?" " Yeah, he's good." "Part of our $87 billion budget provided for us to have some secondary armor to put on top of our thin-skinned Humvees." "This armor was made in Iraq and is high-quality metal, and it will probably slow down the shrapnel so that it stays in your body instead of going clean through." "And that's about it." "Be strong without it, when people finally see my pain" "Switches lives to see why we insane" "We wearing clothes a week in a row" "This ain't a thug thing, it's 'cause we're at war" "Dark colors to cover mud stains" "The world's weight is starting to weaken our back" "Considered a ravenous beast if we just launch an attack" "Lose-Iose situation we face in anticipation and hating" "Although we hunted by Satan, we're frustration abating" "The situation we facing, not only follow but chasing" "Those moving with hatred, that's why we feel so neglected" "I'm protecting life in the present" "No need to like this, but please respect it" "This is life." "You're not gonna hit me, are you?" "You're not gonna hit me, are you?" "Nah, I'll stop-- fuck!" "Man, calm your ass down." "What's the matter with you?" "What happened?" "Hey, give me some scissors." "That's a little tight, isn't it?" "Yes." "Last time I saw this guy, he was taking prisoners." "Until a few weeks ago," "Mohammed Tyson was a trusted member of Charlie Battery." "Now he's been accused of identifying and photographing targets for the insurgents." "If it's true, he's responsible for at least three murders, and he'll be sent to Abu Ghraib Prison." "Nothing is black and white here anymore." "Now do you want to be my guest, or do you want to be my prisoner?" "Fine." "Tyson, do you want to be my guest, or do you want to be my prisoner?" "What's all this?" " You wanna be my guest?" " Yeah, okay." "Relax, man." "I ain't cutting you." "I'm taking it off." "You're my guest." "You're my official guest." "Whatever you give it to him, he will never respect anything." "That's why Mohammed Tyson is detained, and he's going to be sentenced to Abu Ghraib for 30 years." "That's it." "It's easy." "One plus one equal two." "You're not gonna try anything funny." "You'd have to get past 80 guys to get to the gate." "Super Cop and I started to work about four months ago." "Yes." "We have an agreement." "We have to clean Adhamiya." "First of all, this is our country." "And the second thing, we want to live in peace." "So that's why we started to work together." "He gather intel, we go together and then we arrest the bad people." "...they started some construction in my town," "Colorado Springs, it's the Woodman and l-25 interchange." "I'm not really exactly sure what the construction was for, but I know they had started it." "It was causing lots of backups." "Now I dropped out of high school, then went back to high school again, and they're still working on it and stuff." "After I dropped out of high school again," "I didn't really do much but a lot of drugs and drinking." "That got old." "I joined the army, right?" "Then I'm in Germany for a year just partying my ass off." "All of a sudden, the army slaps down this deployment thing." "They're all like, "You're going to war, right?"" "So I go to war." "We destroy a country." "We rebuild a country." "Now I had gotten online and looked at a Colorado Springs newspaper the other day, and one of the headlines was" ""Woodman and l-25 Project Has Some Progress."" "How do I go through all of that and they have "some" progress?" "Who knows?" "Maybe I'll become president." "Sound good?" "Our other vehicle just decided to keep on fucking driving, and not even bother to look back to see if we were still there." "That was really thoughtful of 'em." "Any station on this, this is HB405." "Radio check, over." "The worst thing that could happen?" "Well, if you had diarrhea right now, that would probably suck pretty fucking bad." "You know, there's lots of places around here, if you look around, someone could shoot a fucking RPG at us." "This is not my country." "When I leave here, I'm fucking gone." "They're here to get paid." "Soon as we leave, guess what the fuck they're gonna do?" "I'll hear about this shit on the news." "I'm gonna feel like crap because I tried to train 'em." "I tried to train 'em." "I tried to train 'em, but I can't train someone who doesn't give a shit." " And this is yours, not mine." " I know." "The Military Postal Service agency is now processing" "The Military Postal Service agency is now processing around 2 million Ibs." "of mail each week for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan." "Lieutenant Commander Brian Lomax, chief of policy for the agency, says all those letters and packages help keep service members connected to home." "Yes." "Don't fucking move." "I don't know the rest of the words." "Well, I'm trying this new flavor of Easy Mac." "It's Tombstone Cheese Pizza." "Little curious." "That's what us imams do." "We're leaders." "We try and get things straight." "You know, make sure everything works out nice and neat." "I gotta try something before I let my people fall into a big mistake." "Most imams also speak Arabic." "I do the same." "It says..." ""From national citizens."" "That means you." "Well, yes." "I got the no beer blues" "Yes, I do" "My blood system's dry" "My brain's gonna fry" "Yeah, I got the no beer blues!" "They believe that we betrayed our country because we work with the army, and that's not true." "They are the real traitors, and we are the good guys." "We know we are the good guys because we want to make the new Iraq a good country, a good Iraq country, and they don't want this to happen." "Because if this happens and these people can't live without war." "They've been living in wars from the beginning of their lives." "And it's hard for them to change and see everyone happy." "Everyone goes back, sits with his children, his wife, friends." "They say that's too much for us." "Hey, what happened this morning?" "This morning... the Shiites were having their holy day, doing their usual walks around Baghdad and their little pilgrimage to some of the holy shrines in the area." "And then went over to Kadhimiya and a couple explosions went off." "Doctors at the hospital say at least 75 people were killed thus far." "When the QRF from the nights and Dakota went over to assess the situation and try to help with medical support, they got there only to be pelted by rocks and sticks and bottles and chairs and anything Iraqis could pick up and throw." "It's been a wonderful morning." "Listen up." "Listen up." "Hey, when we get out here, we're not standing up." "Everybody gonna get down, turn around and face out." "We gotta go up here and check out this thing." "Here's the thing." "We're going to check out up here by the mosque." "There's supposed to be some army up here that's armed." "We're going up here to see how many it is." "We're gonna let the IPs know." "They're gonna disarm 'em." "If they don't disarm 'em, we go back and disarm 'em ourselves." "Understood?" "All right." "Oh, shit." "Get down." "We got it." "IEDs are the scariest." "By far have got to be the scariest." "Gunfire and crap like that, that shit don't bother me." "You know, it's whatever," "But IEDs?" "They hide that shit in the garbage, man." "This whole country's garbage." "Everything is just trash." "And it could be anywhere, you know?" "When we're going around corners, and there's a box on the side of the road." "You know, cringe and take the turn and hopefully you don't hear a bang." "...and AK-47##s are standing over there." "The lieutenant is looking for armed members of Mahdi's army, the Shia militia." "While not yet hostile to the coalition, they're growing in numbers." "The talk on the street is civil war." "If it comes, these soldiers will be targeted by every faction." "I don't care what anybody says." "There's peaceful places in Iraq, but this ain't one of them." "Know that anybody who's been here has lived it, seen it and done it." "They've done their job." "You too!" "Get on the fucking ground!" " Get on the fucking ground!" " Get the fuck down!" "Yeah, they're gonna sit down..." "All right, get your hands up." "These the bad guys?" "Two coming out!" "Gentlemen, I'm sorry for the inconvenience tonight." "But it's necessary for the security of Iraq." "We have who we're looking for right now." "We'll try to make it short, quick and painless." "Well, it's been interesting, this last year." "It's a once in a lifetime chance to live in a bombed-out palace and then make the most of it." "I definitely won't have ceilings as high as this probably ever again or chandeliers as many as I'm living under right now, but it's the right thing to do to give it back to the Iraqi people." "And we're all looking back to going back to Giessen, Germany." "There's still a lot of mission between now and the time we do that, and we have some definable goals that we want to get accomplished before we leave." "When you sit and watch TV, and you go to your 9:00 to 5:00 job, and you complain about the pizza being late, there's no way you're gonna know how we live here." "Someone being sympathetic to this," "I don't even know if I'd be sympathetic if I wasn't in the army." "After you watch this, you're gonna go get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I say." "And you'll forget me by the end of this." "You'll forget all of this." "Only people who will remember this is us." "I don't think anywhere in history has somebody killed somebody else and something better has come out of it." "It's just not possible." "I couldn't even answer that question." "There's not really any rationalization behind someone's child dying." "I don't think it's... worth the death of someone's family member." "Okay." "Turn left." "I flew home to Germany on a MedEvac, surrounded by wounded soldiers." "Three weeks later, fighting erupted in Adhamiya." "Unlike a movie, war has no end." "Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord." "You ain't nobody, chief, so stay on guard." "Nobody loves you!" "I'll be back soon, honey." "Don't worry about it." "I love you, man!" "Oh, Lord, he might throw me off the vehicle." "I love you!" "Gunner, you're always invited." "You know that." "That's right." "Gunner Palace, basically, an adult's paradise."