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January 29, 2007
Desolate Roads
On this mission the Iraqi Army was pulling outer security while the American soldiers pulled inner security around the engineers who were patching holes in the road trying to prevent the enemy from planting bombs. We crossed from the west side of Mosul over the Tigris River to the east side. Some minutes later, the humvee I was riding in pulled to the side to park in a garbage dump. The rank stench of Mosul’s refuse filled the truck, and we nearly got stuck, bumping tires spinning in the dark, and a few heavy fish-tails before finally parking.
We sat for maybe forty-five minutes in the hot stink. Although the night was cold, the motor was kept running to power radios and other gear. The smell of sweat and fuel were heated, mixing with the stench of the garbage, and giving me a throbbing headache. I peered out the thick window at my sector at the 2-3 o’clock positions. The night-vision monocular rendered an eerie world in shades of white, black and green. A pack of large dogs came rummaging in the dark. The enemy sometimes kills dogs and other animals, including people, and stuffs bombs into their bodies. I kept peering out the window.
The big news back home was the “Troop Surge,” and the “Iraq Study Group” and the University of Florida football and basketball champions. I’d read where interviewers asked combat soldiers what they thought of the “troop surge” and the soldiers would give answers having no idea what they were talking about, no more an idea than the person asking the question.
Michael Yon reports from Iraq. Essential reading, a dazzling photo essay from America's best war correspondent.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at January 29, 2007 12:02 PM
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