Sean Walsh — Army Lieutenant in Baghdad

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Petros Giannakouris / AP

Soldiers patrol south of Baghdad in Radwaniyah, Iraq.

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On coping with the danger
My main experiences walking around here is you act like you're in an episode of The Sopranos, that's sometimes how the rules are here. And if you imagine yourself in that [scenario], it becomes a lot easier to understand how things work here ... You know it's dangerous here, but you kind of take a dark sense of humor toward it, and just try to laugh off some things.

On witnessing death in combat
People really don't understand the sacrifices that are made here by the soldiers. Things are getting better, but the rate of violence that the Iraqi people undergo is also very difficult and it's hard for Americans to understand. It comes off as statistics, but those are real people — Iraqis and Americans.

On his work as a project manager
We provide microgrants and we provide emergency assistance to the Iraqi people here. So it's much more work-a-day in the sense that I won't say it's like office work, but that comes closest to it. And it makes my fiance happy that I'm a little less out there. One of the big things that has made us successful recently is that we're able to provide assistance very quickly to people. And we've created job programs, and we have helped address some shortfalls of central services — like when the government is unable to provide electricity, or security concerns have prevented them from maintaining electrical lines. We've given out in this area in the last few months hundreds of microgrants of $1,000 or $2,000 to help small businesses develop and get their feet off the ground

On progress
Things are definitely getting better here. I'm not one to be overly optimistic about anything, but even during the time my unit has been in this area, we have seen things get better. We have seen people come back to jobs. Things have gotten much more secure. But I think everybody else realizes that it's so very tenuous. Things could fall apart so quickly.

On the extension of tours of duty
I remember clearly the day that we all learned that everybody's tours would be 15 months. Everyone kind of just accepted it. It didn't really surprise or shock anyone, and we hadn't yet deployed so it wasn't like we thought we were coming home and then found out it would be later. I actually had one soldier who, in his earlier tour, was pulled out of Iraq to Kuwait and they were on the plane to go home, and they had to turn back around to Baghdad. So we were actually kind of happy that the situation had happened, it became a lot easier to accept it, and deal with it, and tell our families ahead of time.

On homesickness
We're very lucky being in the military that we're in and in today's society. I have a cellphone. I'm able to call home every day. It gives you some sense of normalcy, you have e-mail. So you deal with it that way. You surround yourself with things that remind you of home.

On the anti-war sentiment
I don't consider it an insult, or that they're betraying troops. I take that very much as it's what makes America America. It's them exercising their freedoms and I support that and I applaud that. We'll continue serving here as long was we have to.

On completing the mission
I immediately have to think about the people that we've lost here, and the friends that I've lost here, and what that means. These are some of the best people you could ever hope to meet, people who I know would have done absolutely incredible things. And I'll think about them every day for the rest of my life. In fact, I had one friend who was killed a month before he was supposed to go home to get married. How do you put a price tag on that level of sacrifice? How do you quantify that? You can't. So that begs the question, do you have to continue to sacrifice because of that? Does that require everyone else to continue to sacrifice to meet that commitment, or does that make you say we've met our commitment here to continue this. Obviously, that's not up for me to decide. That's up for the President to decide. The thought that we might leave without completing what they started would sadden me, but there are also lots of people that have families to go home to too. Regardless of politics or anyone's personal beliefs in what we should be doing or our strategy or what-not, I just love that I get to be here with my fellow soldiers and support this mission. I'm also looking forward to coming home, whenever that is.

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